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Report: Colin Kaepernick, Eric Reid Receive Less Than $10 Million In Collusion Settlement

By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) -- The Colin Kaepernick story just took yet another twist, and this one has to do with the money he received as part of his settlement with the NFL over alleged collusion. The amount is a whole lot less than most people speculated or assumed when the settlement was reached in February.

Citing sources "briefed on the deal," the Wall Street Journal's Andrew Beaton reported Thursday that Kaepernick and Eric Reid will receive less than $10 million from the settlement. The report could not determine "how the payment is divided between the players and how much they will net after legal fees."

Nevertheless, a sum of under $10 million is a far cry from what was being speculated after Kaepernick and his attorney, Mark Geragos, settled the case. Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman said that some NFL team officials imagined the payout amount would be north of $60 million. Plugged-in NFL reporter Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk set the over/under on the settlement payout at $49.5 million. (Days later, Florio detailed that the under was the likeliest bet.)

Of course, when the settlement was made between the NFL and the Kaepernick and Reid side, the agreement dictated that all terms of the settlement would remain confidential. Given that this latest bit of information reflects much better on the league, the safest assumption is that the information either came from someone at the NFL or someone friendlier to the league than the players' association. Now that part of the settlement has been leaked in roughly a month's time, it's fair to wonder when more details might become public knowledge, and whether the next morsel of information may come from the other side.

Beaton explained that if the case had gone to an arbitrator and if Kaepernick had won, the NFL would have been on the hook to pay him three times his worth on the open market.

"If Mr. Kaepernick's market value had been judged to be a total of $30 million over the two seasons he was sidelined -- a ballpark price tag for a player of his caliber -- he could have been awarded $90 million from the ruling," Beaton wrote.

Instead, both sides agreed to settle. And if the figures in Thursday's report are accurate, then the final payout for Kaepernick is much, much lower than most observers assumed when the deal was struck.

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