So for those out there who don't know, if the case went to court and Kaep won, he would have stood to receive a larger settlement due to stipulations with the NFLPA. Odds are that the evidence was inconclusive, or in favor of the NFL winning, and the NFL settled for what they expected to pay for an extended court case plus some hush money to make the problem go away.
If Kaep had a strong case, he'd be much better served to see it through. Then again, he could've also made the same calculation--a fast payout without the stress of an extended court case.
Quote
Due to the rules outlined in the NFL Players Association’s collective bargaining agreement with the league, a ruling in Kaepernick’s favor would not entitle him to a spot on a team, but he would receive a financial award amounting to roughly double what he would have made if he had stayed in the league.
And late night radio (local to SF) said something about 3x instead of 2x if a certain condition was met, but I can't recall.
Here's the bottom line: the NFL wins nothing if the case goes to trial. Not even if they definitively prove collusion didn't happen. It's all poor press, because the public will never remember the verdict, just what the trial was about. This settlement is a bigger win for the NFL than if the case had gone to trial, because it silences Kaep and Reed, to a degree. And making this problem vanish into the mists is worth a pretty sizable chunk of change.