Why Teams Will Not Sign Colin Kaepernick… Right Now

It isn’t right. An athlete with professional talent has yet to be signed to any team in the NFL because of his actions last season.

We all remember. Kap was kneeling during the National Anthem as the season was beginning to get underway and that was his way to speak out against police brutality against African Americans and minorities.

He had been doing this in the previous game or two (I forget which game it blew up in) but the in the midst of the preseason, somebody caught on and pointed it out. And that’s when the story blew up and the backup quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers became the forefront of the team and the largest story coming out of the Bay Area.

And as I sit here on August 7th, 2017, Colin Kaepernick is still without a job and waiting to get a call from a team who is in need of a quarterback. He is still in search of a job while quarterbacks with lesser talent than him are gathering employment right before his eyes.

A quarterback who literally was about to head into the booth and join the media, Jay Cutler, was able to take the vacant starting role in Miami as they THREW $5 Million guaranteed at him.

And of course, we’ve heard all of the comments. Michael Vick pointing out that maybe Kap should take down that wild afro of his to look more professional. Or Ray Lewis just days ago telling Kap to basically keep his personal life off of the field and whatever you do, do not let people know because they will judge you anyway. And for what it’s worth, I agree with Lewis here.

brotherhood – we are in this together pic.twitter.com/Q3HpPA0uqr

— Ray Lewis (@raylewis) August 1, 2017

But following Lewis’ comments, Kap’s girlfriend Nessa who is a radio personality and I’m pretty sure was on Guy Code/Girl Code, posted a picture of Lewis holding Ravens’ owner Steve Bisciott from behind above a scene from “Django Unchained” depicting Bisciott as a slave owner.

🎯 @raylewis pic.twitter.com/N9k7nDgmDh

— NESSA (@nessnitty) August 3, 2017

And this is one of the largest reasonings behind Kap not being signed at this stage in the game. Because they are worried about certain reactions and outbursts such as this. It has become such a circus with Kaepernick that owners, general managers and coaches are beginning to ask, “is it even worth it”?

Now they have to worry that if they decide to cut Kap in training camp, will his girlfriend, who has a 127K followers, post something depicting your team and organization in a negative light? That needs to be a legitimate concern for these owners.

Now I understand people do not want Kaepernick to just give in and as I’ve heard spoken, “bow down to his master”. But what is the other choice that he has right now? If he really is dedicated to the game of football like the Seahawks GM John Schneider said, then it is time attempt to calm the media down, lay low and focus on trying to get back into the game.

And I’m sorry, again I get it, people do not want him to be silenced, but he needs to tell his girlfriend that she just cannot personally go after organizations like she did to the Ravens. How is that going to make signing Kap appealing? Because Ray Lewis tried giving your boyfriend advice you then turn Lewis into the bad guy in this situation?

Nessa is not the biggest factor in this situation though. Looking at everything, the answer is sitting in front of us. I do not think that the owners are racists, although some could be but I do not think that has anything to do with this situation because, well, every team is littered with African American stars. But instead I think Kap’s biggest weakness here is that whatever team eventually elects to sign him is going to have to deal with the headache of the media and the potential backlash from fans.

From what I’ve seen and heard there has been an enormous amount of feedback on Twitter and other strands of media with fanbases voicing the opinion that if their team signs Kaepernick, they will be vocally upset. Now from my perspective, who gives a damn what the fans want because they will get over it eventually. Look at Patriots fans. It’s pretty apparent that Tom is a Trump guy, and sure it pissed some people off… AKA Susan Pease (WEEI reference)… But will they still sell out every game? Absolutely. Will they still make millions in merchandise sales? Absolutely.

And fans have the right to be pissed off just as Kaepernick has to right to kneel during the National Anthem. Kap wore pigs on his socks depicting police officers as pigs and has even compared cops to slave catchers. Listen, if you have a cop in your family or are close friends with one, that could and should really piss you off and probably to the point where you do not want this guy representing your favorite football team.

And with all of these headaches comes the idea that, well guys, he’s a backup quarterback in the eyes of many right now. And because of that, why would they bring in someone who is going to become a major distraction to the team if they aren’t even going to be a leading contributor to your team’s success? It just doesn’t make sense for a lot of teams to go through that if they don’t need too.

And there’s another reason. There isn’t too much NEED for him right now. And I capitalize “need” because before you get all riled up and start rifling off his stats at me, I know, he is better than some starting quarterbacks and most backups. Minus Jimmy G. What up Kap. But once again, if there is no team who is in dyer need of a backup or a starter, why would they put themselves through that media circus right now?

It just doesn’t make sense for teams to put themselves through that as the season nears and they are trying to prep their teams for playoff runs and potentially more.

However with all of that being said, Kaepernick deserves to have a job here in the NFL and I am sure that he will be signed if not before the start of the season, the first few weeks in when injuries begin to pile up.

In 12 games Kap threw for 16 touchdowns with just 4 interceptions leading him to a 90.7 quarterback rating and a 59.2 completion percentage.

He absolutely deserves a job over a lot of these hacks out there. I remember last season he actually made me a little nervous when he was up against the Patriots in the first portion of the game. That was until the Pats came storming and Brady made one of the greatest touchdown passes of the season to then rookie Malcolm Mitchell.

Colin Kaepernick does deserve to be on a team. But until his girlfriend stops taking shots at potential suitors for her boyfriend to you know, land a job, and a team is in need of a decent quarterback, Kap is going to have to sit tight.

And to address the Jay Cutler signing over Kap before I get people bringing that up because I keep using the word, “need”. Jay Cutler was someone who was potentially available and not a media headache. So that still doesn’t classify as a need in my eyes because there was one more option. But if that type of situation arises again, I am pretty certain Kaepernick will be getting a phone call.

He will be in uniform at some point this season. And I believe early on. The question now is which team will pull the trigger, and when.

Written By: Nick Quaglia (@NickQuag)