Van Lathan can’t say for certain how much of a role — if any — Jay-Z played in planting negative stories about Colin Kaepernick.
But The Ringer personality knows for a fact that the rap legend’s sports agency, Roc Nation, helped seed such stories as the former San Francisco 49ers star attempted his NFL comeback.
On this week’s episode of Higher Learning, Lathan discussed Nicki Minaj’s recent allegations that Jay-Z had organized a smear campaign against her, which prompted Kaepernick’s wife, Nessa Diab, to make similar claims regarding his treatment of her husband. But while Lathan couldn’t speak specifically to the claims against Jay-Z, he said that he does possess firsthand knowledge of the manner in which Roc Nation operated with regard to Kaepernick.
“This is the reality. This is what happens, at least what happened in this one instance because I was there,” Lathan said. “I can’t say that Jay-Z did anything, right? But I know for sure — for sure— that Roc Nation was seeding negative stories about Colin Kaepernick during the time that he was really in traction with Jay-Z. For sure.”
Lathan proceeded to recall that he was working for TMZ at the time when the outlet’s founder, Harvey Levin, approached him with information he received from a Roc Nation source regarding Kaepernick. The information fell in line with a lot of the negative stories that had emerged about the former Nevada star, including claims that he wasn’t truly interested in reentering the NFL.
“It was the same thing that people had started to hear on First Take,” Lathan said. “It was a narrative that was getting around.”
Lathan had originally believed that the narrative originated from other players in the NFL. But following his conversation with Levin, he found himself believing that the storis had actually originated from the agency — especially after TMZ was fed a story about Jay-Z potentially becoming an NFL owner that was intended to help shield the rap mogul from criticism regarding his partnership with the league
“They were into it. And sides were working,” Lathan said of Roc Nation. “And so that was a thing that actually happened.”
Ultimately, Jay-Z never became an NFL owner and Kaepernick hasn’t been a part of an NFL roster since the 2016 season. But while the entire situation has been one of the most-covered sports stories of the last decade, it appears that the real story here was the one that was playing ut behind the scenes.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.