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He kept insisting on getting "starter" money even though he wasn't even the locked-in starter at the 49ers when he started his protest. There were at least two teams that would have signed him for back-up money (Ravens being one off the top of my head) but he insisted on starter money. Our buddy Pete said he would have hired him but didn't want to create the perception that Wilson wasn't the starter and that Kaepernick deserved a chance to be a starter quality. I'm sure that he was probably better than some starting qbs at that time but just because some franchises are "risk averse," doesn't mean the the NFL as an entity colluded to not hire him. The problem is, I suspect, from a legal standpoint it only takes two to create a "conspiracy" and the NFL decided to cut it loses because chances are that somewhere two teams or two owners exchanged emails/conversations/phone calls that would reflect poorly on the league in front of a jury. Once the arbitrator determined the case could go to court, the NFL cut it's losses under the specter of discovery and settled.