It’s been now eight years since Colin Kaepernick last played in the NFL. While he was once one of sports’ most talked about figures for his stance on taking a knee during the national anthem and subsequent lockout from any NFL future, he’s still fighting for a return to professional football. Although it seems like a lifetime ago, Kaepernick’s protests remains one of the most intense battles in the modern day culture wars to date.
Kaepernick was recently interviewed by Sky Sports in the UK about his ongoing quest to return to the NFL, where he dropped the headline quote, “I can help a team win a championship,” as he still hopes for a return to the league at 36 years old.
That led for NFL insider Mike Florio to recap Kaepernick’s journey, calling out the NFL for flat out collusion against the former quarterback, but also speaking some hard truths about his professional football future.
Via Pro Football Talk:
I firmly believe the NFL colluded against him in 2017, with a business decision that catered to the 30 percent of the fan base that hates him and ignoring the 30 percent of the fan base that loves him. (The league ultimately settled his collusion grievance.) I also firmly believe that it’s over for Kaepernick, and that it has been.
He’ll be 37 in November. He hasn’t played since January 1, 2017. At this point, it’s just not happening.
The mere fact that his biggest champion in coaching circles — former 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh — is back in the NFL but Kaepernick’s name hasn’t even been whispered as a possibility confirms it. Back in 2017, Harbaugh said on PFT Live that he believes a team can win championships, with an “s”, with Kaepernick. Since then, Harbaugh arranged an open workout for Kaepernick at a Michigan spring game.
In 2024, it’s too late. It’s done. The NFL successfully colluded against him long enough to make it moot.
Regardless, it’s now moot. He comes off as delusional by thinking at this point that there’s even a chance.
It’s rare to see someone covering the NFL coming out with such strong language against the league. But given what happened to Kaepernick (and Florio’s often referenced legal expertise) to call it anything but collusion would be an incredible mental leap to make against all the facts.
That makes Kaepernick’s continued insistence and hope in playing in the NFL once again all the more sad and sorrowful. There’s clearly still wounds that are open there and as Florio mentioned, perhaps the only person that would give him a chance in the NFL today is his former 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh with the Chargers. But at this point Ryan Leaf has an equal chance of coming back as Kaepernick does.
Colin Kaepernick being blackballed by the NFL will go down as one of the most controversial episodes in recent sports history. And his story just goes to show the level of cognitive dissonance that continues to shape the NFL’s stances regarding social and cultural issues considering this is the same league that tried to stake out its own territory in the “Black Lives Matter” movement and others.
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