A timeline of JAY-Z’s relationship with the NFL

On September 15, 2017, JAY-Z took the stage for his headlining set at the Meadows Music and Arts Festival in Queens. The festival performance was the Brooklyn rapper's first show in his native New York City in three years, and he took the opportunity to dedicate a song to Colin Kaepernick.

Before running through his 4:44 cut "The Story of O.J.," JAY-Z addressed the crowd: “I want to dedicate this song to Colin Kaepernick tonight,” he said. “I want to dedicate this song to Dick Gregory. I want to dedicate this song to any body who was held back and you overcame whatever it was.”

At the time, Kaepernick remained unsigned in free agency after his season of peaceful protest.

During a performance on Saturday Night Live in October 2017, JAY-Z showed silent support for Kaepernick. Taking the stage with Damian Marley, he wore a black jersey with “Colin K” on the back and the quarterback's number "7" on each side.

On "Apeshit," the single from JAY-Z and Beyoncé's collab project as The Carters, JAY seemed to confirm reports that he had declined the Super Bowl halftime show offer. He rapped, "I said no to the Super Bowl: you need me, I don't need you/ Every night we in the endzone, tell the NFL we in stadiums too."

In October 2018, Jermaine Dupri announced a partnership with NFL to produce events around the Super Bowl in Atlanta. Following JAY-Z's recent deal with the NFL, multiple sources have claimed that the rapper called Jermaine Dupri at the time, urging him not to work with the league.

On a livestream after JAY-Z's NFL deal was announced, songwriter Bryan Michael Cox said that JAY-Z had called Jermaine Dupri at the time and said, "We're talking about a guy who single-handedly called... Jermaine [Dupri] to tell him not to do it." Cox went on to say that the Jermaine Dupri deal was "the same program" that JAY-Z eventually signed on for.

Funkmaster Flex also wrote on Twitter that he had spoken with Jermaine Dupri: "HE CONFIRMED THAT WHEN HE WAS WORKING WITH THE NFL LAST YEAR HE DID GET A CALL FROM JAYZ ASKING HIM.. “HOW DEEP ARE U IN WITH THE NFL?” EXPRESSING... “THAT MIGHT NOT BE A GOOD IDEA”

In an interview with Atlanta's V-103 station in August 2019, Jermaine Dupri confirmed that JAY-Z had called him about his work with the NFL but said, "[JAY-Z] never told me don't do what I was doing."

In the wake of the NFL's announced partnership with JAY-Z and Roc Nation, many wondered what Kaepernick actually thought about the deal. Kaepernick's attorney Mark Geragos responded to ABC, saying that the deal "crosses the intellectual picket line."

Geragos also said that JAY-Z made no effort to talk to Kaepernick before the deal: “The deal was already done prior to any conversation that [Kaepernick] had with JAY-Z,” Geragos told the station, “And he certainly didn’t have any conversations with the NFL.”

Kaepernick himself seemed to be subbing JAY-Z soon after, posting a picture of a highlighted passage from Robert L. Allen's Black Awakening in Capitalist America that read, in part, “What [they] seek is not an end to oppression, but the transfer of the oppressive apparatus into their own hands.“

The Crushers Club, one of the two groups that will receive a $200,000 donation from Roc Nation and the NFL as part of the Inspire Change initiative, came under scrutiny soon after the donation was announced. The organization, which works with at-risk kids in Chicago, seemed to encourage kids to cut off their dreadlocks in videos posted to social media and professed "All Lives Matter" in a tweet.

In a statement to The FADER, the organization's president wrote: "The Crusher’s Club does not have any policies prohibiting dreadlocks — we welcome all hairstyles from our youth. On occasion, our kids look to change their hairstyles and ask us to assist, especially since haircuts can be a costly expense for them. Our goal is — and will always be — to equip our youth with the resources to improve their neighborhoods, maximize their potential and develop into the leaders of tomorrow.”