Colin Kaepernick investigation: Attempting to provide answers to questions on the table

Fooch's Update: Kap tweeted out a statement

The news surrounding the investigation of Colin Kaepernick, Quinton Patton and Ricardo Lockette has led to all sorts of speculation and questions on the Internet. There is not a ton of information out there, so the void is filled up by assumptions and conclusions based on a few assumptions.

With that in mind, I thought I'd attempt to answer questions, or at least, provide some context for various questions appearing in the comments and on Twitter. We don't know much of anything with certainty, and the answers are going to reflect the uncertainty. Most of the questions are specific to Kap, but they can be applied to Patton and Lockette as well.

What happened at Ricardo Lockette's house?

I've posted the contents of the police report narrative HERE. Scroll to the bottom of the article to read the italicized details.

What's being investigated?

A "suspicious incident". The report indicates the matter was referred to the "Special Victims Office". TMZ reported it as possibly sexual assault, but a Miami PD spokesperson said:

"There's no evidence of a crime or a sexual assault," Pimental said. "This report is simply an incident report taken at the woman's request."

The incident was initially reported online by TMZ as a sexual assault, but Pimental said the celebrity gossip news site "took the report out of context."

Was sex involved?

We do not know. In the report, the woman said she did not have sex with Colin Kaepernick before passing out. People are reading into that as though they had no sex, but that is not what the report says. She told the police she did not recall what happened after Kap allegedly left her room and after Patton and Lockette allegedly looked in the room. After she told Patton and Lockette to leave, they closed the door and left, and the next thing she remembers was waking up at the hospital.

At this point, there has been no report of a rape kit, or any sort of torn clothing, or any sorts of abrasions on her body. The report says nothing about anything, so this is one thing we really need to wait for more information to come out.

She's obviously a gold-digger, right?

Again, without more information, we can't impugn anything on ANYBODY'S character. Believe what you want, but for the moment, this is not a forum for smearing people's character. I referenced "shakedowns" in relation to Michael Crabtree's incident last year, but that was meant as a comparison for one possible outcome to the situation. The fact there has not been an allegation of sexual assault is of note for both sides of this. It means the cops don't have evidence to charge any of the three players. But it also means the woman could simply not know what happened the evening of April 1 and wants to get to the bottom of it. Believe whatever you want, but withhold character attacks.

Is this the same as the Michael Crabtree situation during the 2013 NFL playoffs?

We don't know. For those who don't remember, Michael Crabtree was accused of sexual assault in January 2013. The San Francisco DA eventually announced charges would not be filed. It could be the same thing, but until the Miami police, and potentially district attorney's office, complete their investigation, we are not sure. We've heard about this kind of situation with professional athletes, so it is worth keeping in the back of your head. But it is not yet time to make grand assumptions.

Why did Kap get himself into this situation?

A common complaint has been that even if nothing happened, he got himself into a bad situation. I will reference Kap specifically because that is who gets the questioning. In reality, this applies to all three players.

He is not the first professional athlete, and he won't be the last professional athlete, to end up in a bad situation. I'd love to see him just stay home, play video games, do some playbook studying, do some workouts, eat dinner, then go to sleep. But that's not going to happen. If I was young, had some money, and was famous (hell, I could be old and this might be the same), I'd probably want to enjoy life as well.

The blame does fall on him, but I think we can ease up on the judgment. Some folks are quick to point to athletes who don't get in trouble. But let's remember that Kap generally has avoided trouble, and he does plenty of good out there. If these allegations prove baseless, there are plenty of people who will bring this up to impune Kap's character in the future. It's way too easy for random people on the Internet to throw crap against the wall, and see what sticks.

It's unfair, but Kap does need to be aware of his surroundings. I don't think he can do that 24/7, and I think there will be times stupid stuff happens that could only be prevented if he locked himself in at home every day. But if this does blow over, it probably is the kind of thing that makes Kap, Patton and Lockette a little more aware of what's going on, and in turn, a little more skeptical about people's motives.

Will Kap, Patton or Lockette face a suspension?

It's way too early to say anything about discipline. If a sex crime did occur, there would likely be league and/or team discipline. If the woman was taken to the hospital for passing out and nothing happened, one would think there would be no reason for discipline. Ben Roethlisberger was suspended for his own incidents in which he was never convicted of a crime. That happened after two separate incidents, one of which involved a civil suit. If this ends with no charges filed, my guess is nobody faces suspension.

The woman said there was a bong at the house. What does this mean with regard to the NFL substance abuse policy?

Barring a charge on some drug-related crime, I don't expect this to require any of the players enter the league's substance abuse program. You can read more about the program HERE (PDF). Section 1(D)(1) discusses entrance into the drug program. A person enters the program if they fail a drug test, if they voluntarily enter, or based on "behavior". The behavior option is described as follows:

Behavior, including but not limited to an arrest related to an alleged misuse of substances of abuse, which, in the judgment of the Medical Director, exhibits physical, behavioral, or psychological signs or symptoms of misuse of substances of abuse.

I don't think anything happens, but who knows what the NFL will do in this kind of situation. They can be unpredictable.

If a player fails a drug test, they are also entered. If a player is not already in the substance abuse program, there is a limited testing period during the offseason. Players can only be tested once in the offseason, and that one test has to occur sometime between April 20 and August 9. I suspect Kap, Patton and Lockette better be ready for an April drug test.

Does the offseason drug testing program really start on 4/20?

Yes. Yes, it does.

Seriously?

Seriously. My guess is with the offseason workout program starting April 21, it's somehow connected to that. Or the NFL just has a sense of humor. Nah, I'm guessing the former.

What does this mean for Kap's contract extension?

Of course, it always ends up coming down to money. I've seen a lot of questions about what this means for contract extension negotiations. Ann Killion was the first to throw her hat in the ring and discuss how this could impact Kap's contract situation. It's safe to say we'll hear from Cohn & Cohn before too long.

The 49ers released a statement stating that they are "aware of the recent media report regarding Colin Kaepernick and is in the process of gathering the pertinent facts." The team has been negotiating with Kap's people this offseason. While they sort through the situation, I have to think contract negotiations are on hold.

People have said this removes some of Kap's leverage. It does not help his leverage by any means, but I am not prepared to say the 49ers either won't give him the keys to the castle, or they're going to demand concessions because of this. However, I'd imagine they will wait to be 100 percent sure this incident is in the past before completing negotiations (if they were getting close to completion already).

I think this covers most everything. If you have any other questions I missed, let me know in the comments and I can add them in. Hopefully this will be behind us in the near future, but for now, this hopefully sums things up to some extent.