As the NFL free agency flies by, we see players come and go. Alshon Jeffery goes to the Eagles, Eddie Lacy goes to the Seahawks, and the Browns scramble to be relevant in the AFC. It has been a long journey for a lot of free agents, finding a new team and getting adjusted to it. For weeks, I’ve been keeping updated on players coming and going, teams making moves, and the sports analysts waiting to put their two cents in. However, there is one case I can’t really ignore, and that includes the story of Colin Kaepernick and his free agency.
Ever since his protests back in the 2016 season, the ex-49er was the topic of discussion, from conservative pundits to Rodger Goodell himself. Now he's out looking for a new team to work with. Only problem is this: it seems like no one wants to hire him. How is it a problem you ask? Well, it wasn’t like he had a bad year. In fact, his QBR for the season was at 90.7 and had 2,241 passing yards under his belt. It wasn’t really bad compared to other quarterbacks that had lackluster performances (I’m looking at you Brock Osweiler and RG3). Any team would like to have a capable player on their team, but the issue is they have one on the market and they choose to ignore it. Allow Richard Sherman to elucidate:
“It’s difficult to see because he’s played at such a high level, and you see guys, quarterbacks, who have never played at a high level being signed by teams. So it’s difficult to understand. Obviously, he’s going to be in a backup role at this point. But you see quarterbacks, there was a year Matt Schaub had a pretty rough year and got signed the next year. So it has nothing to do with football. You can see that. They signed guys who have had off years before.”
Sherman is right, this has nothing to do with football at all. It has to do with the fact that Kaepernick’s protests worried almost everyone. If you didn’t know, the free agent kneeled during the national anthem instead of standing. That’s pretty much it, other than donating to the Meals on Wheels organization, investing in a campaign helping youth properly interact with law enforcement, and growing a Bob Ross afro. When it comes down to it, America definitely has an unchecked inferiority complex. We have become so bothered by how the country is perceived, that the slighted protest or criticism turns the whole country upside down. All the quarterback had to do was take one knee and everyone became obsessed with calling him problematic.
What was problematic was Ben Roethlisberger facing sexual assault allegations, Ray Rice beating his wife, and Johnny Manziel coming and going like that deadbeat uncle that only comes to your family function just for the food. My point is that the organization gave into the fan’s directionless anger rather than rationality. Because of that, the NFL teams are ousting Kaepernick and that isn’t fair. It is pretty upsetting, because what you have here is a guy who didn’t intend to disrespect the troops or anyone. He just wanted to talk about the state of the country. Guess it goes to show if a celebrity or athlete wants to talk about certain issues, they’ll have to follow Melania Trump’s advice: smile and wave.
