Colin Kaepernick lawyer slams Adam Levine interview on Super Bowl halftime drama as ‘cop out’

Feb. 1, 2019 2:10 PM PT

The drama surrounding Maroon 5’s decision to perform during Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show continues, with Colin Kaepernick’s attorney weighing in Friday on “Good Morning America.”

On Thursday, Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine responded to the backlash on “Entertainment Tonight,” saying of his decision, “No one put more thought and love into this than I did...I spoke to many people. Most importantly, though, I silenced all the noise and listened to myself, and made my decision about how I felt.”

The band, he said, expected the criticism. “We’d like to move on from it and...speak through the music,” he continued.

But Mark Geragos, Kaepernick’s lawyer, called that sentiment a “cop out.”

“If you’re going to cross this idealogical or intellectual picket line, then own it, and Adam Levine certainly isn’t owning it,” Geragos said on “Good Morning America.”

“It’s a cop out when you start talking about, ‘I’m not a politician; I’m just doing the music,’ ” he continued. “Most of the musicians who have any kind of consciousness whatsoever understand what’s going on here.”

But in the interview with ET, Levine hinted the band’s performance would honor the protests against racial inequality and police brutality.

“They will be [heard] — that’s all I want to say because I don’t want to spoil anything,” he said. “And once again, I like to think that people know where I stand as a human being after two decades doing this...I’m not a public speaker. I do speak, but it’s through the music. My life’s work and what I put out into the universe has been positive and hopefully inspiring ... So, what I would say is, you know, we are going to do what we keep on doing, hopefully without becoming politicians and continuing to use the one voice we know how to use properly.”

“To make people understand, we got you,” he continued. “We got you.”

Geragos, however, said Maroon 5 and fellow performers Travis Scott and Big Boi should have declined to do so in support Kaepernick’s fight.

The NFL quarterback famously kneeled during a 2016 national anthem in protest of police brutality against people of color. The following year, Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL accusing its owners of colluding by not signing him.

“Colin took a knee in a very deferential way to express what he sees as systemic oppression and racism in America,” Geragos said on the morning show. “He has been blackballed because of that.”

The National Football League on Tuesday tweeted that Maroon 5 would not be giving the customary pre-Super Bowl press conference, an announcement that further fueled controversy against the band.

It was decision the NFL made, Levine said in the interview, and declined to offer more details.