Eric Reid was one of the top safeties in the NFL at one time.
The San Francisco 49ers selected Reid with the 18th overall pick in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft and traded their first- (31st overall) and third-round picks (74th overall) to the Dallas Cowboys in an aggressive move to climb up on the draft board to they could land the former LSU star.
Reid put together a strong NFL career recording 519 tackles, 6 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, 5 fumble recoveries and 11 interceptions during his tenure with the 49ers and Carolina Panthers from 2013-2019.
In May 2018, Reid filed an official grievance letter with the NFL alleging that team owners and the league, influenced by President Donald Trump, colluded to prevent his employment due to his protest activities. Reid was the second NFL player after Colin Kaepernick to participate in U.S. national anthem protests intended to highlight social awareness and racial injustice towards black people.
Reid’s lawyers also represent Kaepernick in a similar grievance case against the NFL. Trump, who publicly condemned the kneeling protests and urged that the protesting players be fired, had private conversations with NFL owners about the player protests during the time period. Team owners have said they are concerned about being in conflict with Trump in regards to the anthem protests. During a job interview with Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown, Reid reportedly refused to say whether he would obey a rule against kneeling during the anthem.
When Eric Reid signed with the Panthers in 2018, there was speculation the move was tied to his outspoken efforts against police brutality alongside Kaepernick. They were the first two players to begin kneeling during the national anthem and speaking out publicly, which became a controversial topic amongst owners and in the NFL as a whole.
In Eric Reid’s introductory press conference with the Panthers on September 27, 2018, he wore a shirt that supported Kaepernick and stated that his collusion lawsuit would still proceed unimpeded.
David Tepper, the new owner of the Panthers, had been quite outspoken with his remarks about President Trump in the recent past and was more open to players expressing themselves and protesting than the rest of the team owners. Nonetheless, the Panthers organization said the Reid signing was football-oriented only.
By the Panthers’ Week 15 loss to the New Orleans Saints, Reid claimed he had been drug-tested seven times during the 2018 season, even though he had played in only 11 games; accounting for a mandatory test, the probability of such an instance happening randomly is approximately 0.17%. Reid saw this as evidence of being targeted by the league and planned on including these seven drug tests as part of his case file in the proceedings of his collusion grievance against the league. A joint investigation by the NFL and National Football League Players Association concluded that Reid’s claims about the number of times he was drug-tested were inaccurate.
Eric Reid Speaks Out About Common ‘Misconception’ About Him And Colin Kaepernick
Both Kaepernick and Reid each separate collusion grievances against the NFL alleging that owners collaborated to keep them out of the league, but they reached settlements in their respective cases in February 2019.
But less than a month after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expressed remorse for the league not listening to Kaepernick (and others) in 2016 when peacefully protesting, the former Pro Bowl safety still remained unsigned despite starting all 16 games for the Carolina Panthers the previous season and racking up 130 tackles, a franchise high, and four sacks. His 97 solo tackles tied him for third in the league in 2019
On a recent podcast with former NFL linebacker Takeo Spikes, Eric Reid said there’s a common misconception about why him and Colin Kaepernick’s carers were cut short and it’s a false narrative.
“That is the particularly frustrating thing for me, people were trying to discredit what Colin and I were doing by saying we weren’t performing well,” Reid said. “Which is so contrary to what was actually true, like my last season I broke two records and I got cut after that. Me and my agent did the research and we couldn’t find an athlete in the history of the game that broke multiple records and not only got cut, but never played again.”