Colin Kaepernick is being blackballed because of his national anthem protest.
How else do you justify the continued unemplyment of a player who, according to not 1, but 2 Super Bowl-winning coaches, is a starting level quarterback in the NFL?
How else do you justify Blaine Gabbert, Kaepernick's backup last year, getting signed before Kaepernick?
Gabbert wasn't good enough to start over Kaepernick when they played on the same team last year. Now he gets a job before Kaepernick does?
Listening to Kaepernick's detractors try to use all sorts of stupid rhetoric to attempt to explain why Kap should remain unsigned has been nothing short of infuriating.
And some of the rhetoric has truly been stupid.
Some people said that his vegan diet was a reason for teams to back away from him(Never mind that Tom Brady is vegan for the overwhelming majority of the year, and even has a vegan home delivery service run through Blue Apron).
Others, like new 49ers general manager John Lynch, have claimed that Kaepernick needs to make it clear that he's committed to football(Even though Lynch was hired as a GM without having to make his interest in that position known to the 49ers).
Countless others have named Kaepernick's social stances as "distractions" and postured that no team wants to deal with "baggage" like that. Which is fair. After all, Kap's teammates found his protest and subsequent activism such a distraction... that they bestowed upon him the Len Eshmont Award, awarded to the 49ers player that most embodies inspirational and courageous play. Sounds like a real distraction!
Actually, if one critically looks at all of those trying to explain why Kaepernick isn't currently employed, a trend starts to appear. They start out by mentioning things completely unrelated to football, like his haircut. Somewhere towards the end, they mention something about his on-field performance. It's pretty telling, though, that the first thing mentioned is almost always completely unrelated to the former 49ers stalwart's football ability.
Hearing statements like that from Michael Vick is interesting. After the former Atlanta QB's 18 month sentence for dogfighting, his image was clearly tarnished. For this reason, Vick set about attempting to make things right, essentially begging for the public's forgiveness in the process. That appears to be the angle Vick is coming from: how can Colin rebuild his image?
But why does Kap need to rebuild his image? Vick was guilty of feloniously brutalizing and drowning innocent dogs. What is Kap guilty of?
The NFL's political climate also factors heavily into this discussion. Most NFL owners sympathize with conservative views. Generally, the league's players seem to do the same. Donald Trump instructed NFL teams to stay away from Kaepernick, lest they find themselves the receiving party of Trump's Twitter fingers.
The worst part of this: Kap's never been a better player than he is now. Last season, he threw for 16 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions in 12 starts, and his play drew impressed reviews from coaches and teammates alike. Despite the team only going 1-10 with him at the helm, Kaepernick, despite a group of skill position players that can be described as subpar at best, kept his team competitive in just about every game.
He's certainly better than Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens, who recently suffered a back injury. In the wake of that news, many news outlets have linked Kap to Baltimore. While the Ravens definitely appear to have some interest in Kaepernick as a player, owner Steve Bisciotti made some incredibly telling comments about the situation.
Think about Bisciotti's words for a moment. He publically admitted that he and his organization are taking non-football factors, like fan backlash, into account while making their decision on signing Colin Kaepernick. Those are interesting comments coming from someone whose team instructed Janay Rice to apologize for "her role" in the assault that she suffered via the closed fist of her husband, Ray. The organization also seemingly had no issues with Ray Lewis's continued employment after he was indicted for murder following the fatal stabbing of two young men in an Atlanta club. The Ravens made both of those moves with no fan input. Bisciotti is fine with victim blaming and murder, but being charitable and protesting the continued oppression of minorities is where he draws the line!
Quarterbacks like Mike Glennon are being paid upwards of $15 million a year to be bad at their jobs. Colin Kaepernick can't find a team to pay him to be good at his. There's only one logical conclusion why: NFL teams are blackballing him.
