The question of why Colin Kaepernick was in Houston earlier this week, throwing a football around on camera for the first time in a very long time, has been answered.

Colin Kaepernick wasn’t in Houston auditioning for the Texans, he was in town to depose their owner.

According to Yahoo! Sports’ Charles Robinson:

League source says #Texans owner Bob McNair was deposed today in Houston. And Colin Kaepernick was in the depo, face-to-face with McNair. So the mystery around that workout in Houston on Thursday is sort of revealed. He was in town to face off with McNair. — Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) March 16, 2018

Robinson also reports that McNair was unaware that Kaepernick would attend the proceedings:

I’m told #Texans owner Bob McNair had no idea Kaepernick would be in the depos today. Completely surprised by it. Depo took place about 9 am in Houston, went about two hours and wrapped. — Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) March 16, 2018

TMZ released a photo of a smiling Colin Kaepernick, which they say, was taken as the former 49er was leaving the deposition. The McNair deposition is only the first, of a few different such hearings that will take place as a part of Kaepernick’s collusion grievance against the NFL.

Kaepernick filed the grievance in October, alleging that NFL owners conspired to keep him out of the league due to his protests against the national anthem.

Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in the preseason of 2016. Shortly after that, several players around the league copied the protests. At the end of the 2016 season, Kaepernick walked away from his contract with the 49ers and was not signed by another club.

However, NFL players continued the anthem protests without Kaepernick in 2017. Culminating in Week 3 of the NFL season, after President Trump blasted the protesters in a fiery campaign speech in late September. That weekend over 200 NFL players protested during the playing of the national anthem, in response to President Trump.

Several polls emerged throughout the season, suggesting that many fans had tuned the NFL out due to the anthem protests. While anti-collusion rules which prevent owners from conspiring to keep a player out of the league exist. There’s no rule against 32 individual owners each coming to their own conclusion that signing Colin Kaepernick would be a bad idea.

To date, no public evidence has emerged which proves that NFL owners colluded or conspired to keep Kaepernick out of the league.

Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn