ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro denies scrapping Colin Kaepernick docuseries for political reasons
"We made that decision many months prior to the NFL announcements."
"We made that decision many months prior to the NFL announcements."
"It's not formal threatening or anything else. It's just like, 'Don't talk. Nobody cares what you think.'"
Where could Da Saga of Colin Kaepernick land?
"But the NFL-ESPN relationship will make reasonable people believe the seeds for the scrapping of the show were planted the moment it appeared the NFL would end up owning part of ESPN."
Lee told Reuters the series "is not coming out" but declined to elaborate due to an NDA.
"They were into it. And sides were working."
"This is Kaepernick all over again."
"I didn't want my discomfort with what she said to show on screen."
"I’m just waiting for all the people who comment under political and sports things to shut up and dribble or to shut up and play football, to tell him to shut up and rush."
"I would never be in a position where they will call and I won't be ready."
ESPN gave the series a greenlight in 2020, but still doesn't plan to air it for at least a year and will reportedly allow Lee, Kaepernick and Jemele Hill to shop it elsewhere.
"What they've done is not correctable."
"If we're going to talk about Colin Kaepernick, we need to talk about him honestly."
Mike Florio dished out brutal honesty regarding Colin Kaepernick's comeback hopes but called out his treatment by the NFL in the process.
"You're not allowed to go out of your way to belittle, degrade and depict groups that don't look like you as subhuman."
"The same way we want respect when Colin Kaepernick takes a knee, we want to give respect to people whose ideas are different from ours."
"I know when I'm on track when that part of the internet starts saying crazy things."
We had to listen to this, so now you do too.
"This is the one time I almost, almost lost it. When T.O. came on the air and said that Max seemed blacker than me."
On Wednesday, Shams Charania reported Colin Kaepernick "is investing" in the BIG3, "which was on the verge of potentially shutting down." On Thursday, The Athletic reported that Kaepernick's representative denied any investment: "It's just not true."
Kaepernick & America takes us back to 2016 when Colin Kaepernick's decision grew into culture war chaos.
Spike Lee is probably the perfect director for the project.
What good is celebrity status if it's not utilized to promote business deals?