Ezra Shaw/Getty
An arbitrator on Thursday permitted former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s court case against the league to move forward, NBC Sports reports. Arbitrator Stephen Burbank announced Thursday that Kaepernick’s case—which alleges that the league colluded against hiring him after his kneeling protest during the national anthem—will not be dismissed, ruling against the NFL’s wishes. In a statement, Burbank said that the NFL would be violating a “collective bargaining agreement” between players and the league if Kaepernick’s allegations were true. The case will now move to a hearing “where NFL owners will be forced to testify” about what instructions they gave to their teams’ personnel departments regarding Kaepernick. Kaepernick’s former San Francisco 49ers teammate, Eric Reid, has also brought a collusion case against the league, but Burbank’s decision did not apply to that case.