OUT ON A LIMB: The door is closed for Colin Kaepernick.
Starting five years ago, the NFL wrongfully colluded against Colin Kaepernick. Five years of collusion later, the NFL has won.
It’s over for Colin Kaepernick. There’s no way that any team will sign him at this point, not after he has gone half of a decade without playing football of any kind.
Yes, he posted a workout video on Thursday. Sure, Schefty quoted an anonymous source who says Kaepernick is in the best shape of his life. (It’s unclear why anonymity is needed for that specific piece of information; it’s hardly a state secret.) It’s still not happening.
I’m a realist. The ability of the NFL to shun Kaepernick for five years slams the door on any effort to return now. If no team was willing to sign him in 2017, 2018, or 2019, no one will be signing him three years later.
It’s not happening. Why would anyone want a quarterback who hasn’t played in five years, especially in light of the inevitably hostile reaction from 30 percent of the fan base if he’s signed at this point?
Is it wrong that he was frozen out for so many years? Yes. Were some in the media complicit in spreading bullshit narratives that allowed teams to justify ignoring him? Absolutely. Regardless, five years removed from his decision to opt out of the last year of his 49ers contract — at a time when the 49ers otherwise would have cut him — it’s over. It’s done. The door has been closed in his face for five years. It’s not opening now.
Which “bullsh*t” narratives is Mike Florio speaking of? Kaepernick was his own worst enemy if he actually wanted to remain in the NFL, but is an absolutely brilliant self-promoter, leading to multi-million dollar contracts with Nike and Disney. Of course, it’s rather understandable why the NFL would be reluctant to have the man who ended his career as Blaine Gabbert’s backup return:
It’s also quite understandable why Kaepernick doesn’t want to return. Going from woke superstar to riding the pine as a backup would be a rather ignominious end of his anti-American and anti-NFL activism.
Related:
● Nike would very much like to keep its slave labor, thank you.
● The neoliberal counter-revolution. “Does anyone seriously believe the American establishment — Walmart, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, the trustees of Ivy League universities, the major sports leagues, even Brooks Brothers, for God’s sake — would sign on to a movement that genuinely threatened its material interests?”
● From America’s Newspaper of Record: Man Who Agrees With The Media, Universities, Corporations, And Hollywood Thinks He’s Part Of The Resistance.