Colin Kaepernick has tried on several occasions to get back into the NFL, even if it meant being a backup quarterback.
For one reason or another, NFL teams have been unwilling or uninterested in signing the controversial former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who was essentially blackballed by the league following his national anthem kneeling protests.
Los Angeles Times columnist LZ Granderson wrote last week about the absurdity of Kaepernick never getting another chance to play quarterback given some of the other things the NFL has allowed or accepted.
“Trump, who initially turned the heat up on the NFL, now has a mugshot. Robert Kraft and Meek Mill are boys. The government paid the NFL to be patriotic. Of all the league’s unsavory decisions, the expulsion of Kaepernick stands out because it’s theater,” he wrote on X.
Trump, who initially turned the heat up on the NFL, now has a mugshot. Robert Kraft and Meek Mill are boys. The government paid the NFL to be patriotic. Of all the league’s unsavory decisions, the expulsion of Kaepernick stands out because it’s theater. https://t.co/PoCxuaZZB5
— LZ Granderson (@LZGranderson) November 1, 2023
That column garnered some strong reactions from both sides of the issue.
“I am unaware of any actions taken by the National Football League that would prevent any team that so desires from signing Kaepernick. The author does not or cannot identify any league action against Kaepernick,” wrote Mike Bell, responding to the column with a letter to the LA Times. “Couldn’t it just be that nobody wants to sign a middling-level player whose past political grandstanding on the sidelines, rightly or wrongly, is guaranteed to distract and divide the locker room and alienate a large number of fans?”
However, others felt like the activist got a bum rap from the league because of his ethical stance.
“For Kaepernick to be exiled for seven years in his prime because of a symbolic kneel during the national anthem is clearly the height of absurdity and unfairness,” wrote reader Gertrude Barden. “He should have been brought back long ago. For this serious injustice, I would support his reinstatement along with generous back pay by the NFL.”
Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL since 2016 and it seems extremely unlikely he’ll ever play in the NFL again.
[LA Times]
