The National Football League’s 32 owners are in trouble. On Sunday, during week seven of the current season, news broke that Colin Kaepernick filed a filed a grievance under the latest collective bargaining agreement against the owners for colluding to prevent him from ever playing another down in the NFL.

Of course, NFL sports pundits like Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen, are already making their rounds on ESPN to say Kaepernick’s got no case. “It makes some noise, but I haven’t heard anybody say boy, ‘he’s really got a shot at this’,” Mortensen said during a recent Sportscenter newscast. “It’s difficult to prove.”

During the same segment,  Schefter added, “you gotta wonder what long term effect it may have on his opportunity to find anotehr job. But he couldn’t find a job anyway.”

To the contrary, Kaepernick’s grievance threatens to ex pose the collective plantation mentality of the owners. They have banded together to blackball the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback because of the player protests he started during the national anthem to raise awareness about how this country still oppresses minorities, especially African Americans who are recklessly killed by police officers.

The NFL owners will have to prove why mediocre and has-been quarterbacks like former first round bust Brandon Weeden can get a contract, but Kaepernick can’t even get a tryout. Last season, he threw for 16 touchdowns and only four interceptions while playing for a team that won only one game.

There’s only one explanation. The owners don’t want Kaepernick to stir shit up when he takes a knee during the Star Spangled Banner. The collective response by the owners when Donald Trump attacked players who continue to take up Kaepernick’s cause is further proof they are collud ing with one another.

They all issued boiler plate press statements somewhat condeming Trump’s remarks. They put on a dog and pony show by taking a knee with players before the national anthem or locking arms with players. It was like an episode of Law & Order in which the owners played the good cops and Trump played the bad cop.

A week later, the owners had changed their tune. Trump’s BFF and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones threatened to sideline any player who protested during the national anthem. Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross also said he wanted his players to stand because Trump “changed the whole paradigm of what protest is.”

Are we supposed to believe that the owners didn’t coordinate their responses to Trump’s infringing on NFL players’ first amendment right to peacefully protest and his threats to cut off their tax breaks? It’s not that hard to get 32 billionaires on a con ference call to talk about potential revenue losses. They are like synchronized swimmers.

Yet, the owners are a bunch of hypocrites. The NFL only started honoring the U.S. military when Uncle sam opened its pocketbook. A 2015 congressional oversight report revealed that the Department of Defense paid 14 NFL teams nearly $5.4 million in taxpayer dollars between 2011 and 2014 to honor service members and put on elaborate, “patriotic salutes” to the military. If the owners were really patriotic about the flag, servicemen and first reposnders, then they would not be taking money from the armed services to do the Star Spangled Banner. But don’t expect to see that explained on NFL Today or ESPN.

The NFL makes teams and players wear pink during the month of October to raise awareness for women with breast cancer. Kaepernick is doing the same thing. He is bringing attention to the fact innocent black people are being killed by police. That makes him more of a patriot than the owners.