evidence: The NFL couldn't just get system arbitrator Stephen Burbank, a Penn law professor, to throw out the merits of Kaepernick's contentions. It had to spend countless dollars over roughly 16 months to methodically comply with brief after brief and request after request and go through this grievance process. Whether the payout to Kaepernick was measured in seven figures or eight figures, the full costs associated with it for the NFL– financially and from a PR nightmare standpoint – goes far beyond that. Ultimately, the NFL had to reckon with Kaepernick, and this case did not go away until the moment the quarterback was ready for it to do so. [...] Kaepernick, 31, is never going to get back those two years of his career. He had to trek around the country as the inquisition of NFL execs unfolded. He, too, had to pay a very real price in terms of the hours and resources required to contend for something that he, rightly, feels was about being blackballed for his politics, and not about football. And now, even the NFL can no longer argue that either; if there was no reason to settle, the league would not have settled. If there was no truth on Kaepernick's side, the lawyers would still be lawyering. This league, and these owners, don't make a habit out of throwing money away as all pursue Goodell's stated goal of pushing revenue beyond $20B a year.