“Blackballed just like Colin Kaepernick” – Former Commanders edge rusher Junior Galette sues the NFL and NFLPA, seeks $300 million in damages
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Colin Kaepernick and Junior Galette
Earlier this year in February, former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a class action suit against the NFL along with the Dolphins, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos alleging racial discrimination in the hiring process across the league. This unraveled a lot of controversies in the league and against team owners and a few more coaches have joined Flores’ lawsuits and demanded justice for minority coaches in the league.
The league will now have to face another lawsuit as former edge-rusher Junior Galette has filed a lawsuit against the NFL alleging that he has been blackballed from the league by team owners.
Junior Galette alleges team owners have blocked him from rejoining the NFL as he spoke about pay discrimination
According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Junior Galette has named the NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell, the NFL Players Association, the Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Rams, Las Vegas Raiders, Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Carolina Panthers, and Washington Commanders for blacklisting him from the league and is seeking $300 million in damages.
In a filing to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the former Commanders edge rusher said that all his attempts to rejoin the league have been blocked “just like Colin Kaepernick and put on the blacklist by the NFL owners.”
Junior Galette was signed as an undrafted agent by the New Orleans Saints. After five seasons with the Saints, he signed a one-year contract with Washington Redskins. When his contract was up, the then Redskins offered him an extension which wasn’t up to the standard as revealed by Galette. Back in 2018, the 34-year-old posted on Snapchat, “I swear to god I’m not playing for no slave deals I’ll die before I play for more slave deals.” Galette alleged that he was offered less money by the team than his “white” teammate Trent Murphy.
In his lawsuit, Galette mentioned that since his post on Snapchat, he was unable to land a worthy contract with any team in the league. He added that he was approached by former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden. Grunden praised Galette and said, “you are one of the best pass rushers I have ever seen but all we have for you is veteran’s minimum 660K.” At another point in time, he was also approached by the Los Angeles Rams and he agreed to play for them at the veteran’s minimum but the team backed out of the deal at the last moment.
Former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick faced a similar situation back in 2017 when he decided to kneel during the national anthem as a sign of protest against minorities in America. The NFL was divided into two factions, one who didn’t mind Kaepernick kneeling and the other who saw kneeling as a sign of disrespect towards the American flag. Since then, Kaepernick wasn’t able to find a team willing to accommodate him on their roster and he too sued the NFL for blacklisting him from joining the league.
The NFL has been plagued with such discrimination and Junior’s lawsuit will shine a light on such issues which are present but aren’t spoken about due to the fear of suspension. Let’s see how the NFL decides to tackle this alongside Brian Flores’ lawsuit.
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Yash Karandekar
(1023 Articles Published)