The NFL recently ruled that the Oakland Raiders complied with the Rooney Rule ahead of the official announcement that Jon Gruden was to be their next head coach.

That ruling was met with plenty of eye-rolls, and rightfully so. There were reports that Gruden and owner Mark Davis had an understanding he’d be the guy well before the Raiders interviewed USC offensive coordinator Tee Martin and Raiders tight end coach Bobby Johnson.

Whatever your opinion on the Rooney Rule, it seems clear that Oakland at the very least only had the interviews with those two minority coaches with a nod, nod, wink, wink mentality, knowing it was a sham.

Now we’re hearing some interesting scuttlebutt on this topic from Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report, who says he’s hearing the league went easy on Oakland because it wants the Raiders to sign Colin Kaepernick — I scratch your back, you scratch my back. At the center of it is the league’s desire for the collusion case being pursued by Kaepernick against the owners to go away.