Despite the complications that ensued from Colin Kaepernick’s workout for the NFL on Saturday, including a last-minute location change and accusations of bad faith on behalf of the league, the quarterback’s “goal was accomplished,” Eric Reid said Sunday.

“The whole goal of this was to show everybody that Colin is ready to play this game,” Reid said while speaking at his locker after his Carolina Panthers lost to the Atlanta Falcons. He added, “Colin proved he can play this game. He proved he can throw the ball.”

Reid is a former teammate of Kaepernick’s with the San Francisco 49ers who was the first to join him in protesting racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem and has remained close to the free agent quarterback. While talking to reporters Sunday, Reid wore a black jersey with the phrase “I’m with Kap” and the uniform number of Kaepernick, who has been unable to sign with a team since parting ways with the 49ers in March 2017.

Kaepernick filed a grievance with the league that accused team owners of colluding to punish him for his activism, and he and Reid, who had filed a related grievance, came to an undisclosed settlement with the NFL in February. The NFL’s offer on Tuesday for Kaepernick to work out a few days hence reportedly came as an unexpected development to his camp, and Reid said last week that “it feels like a PR stunt.”

After disagreements over the league’s arrangements and language in a waiver form prompted Kaepernick to abruptly move the workout from the practice facility of the Falcons to an Atlanta-area high school, Reid accused the NFL of creating a “PR circus.”

Reid claimed that the league gave Kaepernick just “three hours’ notice to accept the workout” and denied him “transparency” by not granting his request that media members be allowed to attend and film the audition. Twenty-five teams were reported as having sent representatives to the Falcons’ facility but that number was reduced by approximately two thirds by the time Kaepernick began throwing at the new location.

“They wanted Colin to sign a waiver that relinquished his employment rights, instead of just the standard liability waiver, which Colin and his representatives sent them,” Reid said. “They turned that down. He took his workout to a different location, and he showed that [he could play]. He proved that.

“It was reported his arm was ‘elite.’ It’s always been that way.”

Another of Kaepernick’s close allies in the NFL, Houston Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills, echoed some of Reid’s concerns and language Sunday in saying (via USA Today) that “if it’s true about what was put in the waiver … then it was exactly what we thought, which is just a media circus and the league trying to cover their tail, as usual.”

“He’s got to do whatever he has to do to protect himself, and I think that’s what he’s done,” Stills said of Kaepernick. “He’s asking for transparency, and I think that’s what he deserves. … I think he did what he had to do to get the workout off, and it looked like he had a good workout. He’s prepared and ready to go, like he said. So I look forward to a team signing him.”

In a statement Saturday, the NFL said it was “disappointed that Colin did not appear for his workout” but claimed that his “decision has no effect on his status” in the league and that he “remains an unrestricted free agent eligible to sign with any club.”

The league said it sent Kaepernick and his representatives “a standard liability waiver,” based on those used at the annual draft combine and by teams working out other free agents, only to be countered with “a completely rewritten and insufficient waiver.” It also asserted that its preference to use “one video crew” to “shoot and distribute video of the interview and workout” was consistent with its practice at the combine, and that Kaepernick’s camp would have had the “unprecedented” privilege of receiving “both the video that would be sent to all 32 clubs as well as the raw footage from the entire event.”

Reid said he attended Kaepernick’s workout and made sure to return in time for the Panthers’ pregame meetings Saturday night.

“Of course I’m going to be there for my brother. Y’all have seen that,” he said. “The way he fights for people, the way he fights for justice, I want to make sure I’m there supporting him.”

Citing the waiver issue, Reid said that he and Kaepernick “knew this was a PR stunt from the beginning” and that the NFL “never had Colin’s best interests at heart.” Nevertheless, the safety added, “every team in the league could use Colin’s help.”

Of his own team in Carolina, currently starting second-year quarterback Kyle Allen in place of the injured Cam Newton, Reid declared, “I would definitely be excited if he were here.”

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