The Colin Kaepernick situation is a complicated evolution of politics, money, and right vs. wrong. For those unfamiliar or unaware of the situation, let me briefly explain. Colin Kaepernick sat on the bench during the national anthem on September 1st, 2016 which was the last preseason game before the start of the regular season. He took a seat in protest of police brutality and racism against African American’s in the United States. Players on his team and around the league would follow in the following weeks in support and after Nate Boyer, a former Green Beret and NFL long snapper, suggested that Colin Kaepernick take a knee as opposed to sitting, the protest transitioned to kneeling. The following year Kaepernick would be without an NFL job and is still unemployed for over 3 years. During that time, players have kneeled, raised a fist, and even waited in the locker room during the national anthem before the start of a game. This became a national story, one which was centered on racial issues, police brutality, and because of the protest of the national anthem, patriotism. Since Kaepernick was 29 years old since he last played a game and was once a Super Bowl quarterback, many believe he has been “black-balled” by the NFL and the owners. Now, at the age of 32, he is going to workout on Saturday November 16th, 2019 in front of any NFL team and their representatives who would like to see if he still has what it takes to be an NFL quarterback. So, the NFL is moving in the right direction to help Kaepernick, right? Evidently, they are not. In fact, the situation is only getting worse.

What the NFL hopes to accomplish is two things. The first being a public image that the NFL is truly behind its players and would never “black-ball” or silently encourage teams to stray away from signing a player. The second being a true and definitive way for the NFL to allow Kaepernick to show case his talents in front of NFL teams. I have an issue with both of these. With regards to the first point, there are 33 people who have tremendous influence in the most severe, controversial, and important NFL matters. That would be Roger Goodell and the 32 owners. If this “mini combine” was set up for Kaepernick to get rid of this “black-balled” perception that many in the public have, then why wasn’t it done years ago by Roger Goodell. In fact, let’s not spare the NFL teams who are going to be in attendance on this day the benefit of the doubt either. Every single team is capable of picking up the phone and scheduling a workout individually but no team to chose to and now all of sudden they are interested in attending Kaepernick’s workout? That doesn’t add up. This is an impossible situation for some teams as they clearly do not need Kaepernick’s services at quarterback and these same teams are being grouped with the rest as black-balling Kaepernick from the NFL. With regards to the second point, Kaepernick’s camp is equally at fault here. I have no doubt that they have contacted teams about acquiring Kaepernick’s services, but did they try to coordinate with the NFL or other powerful and influential public figures (Jay-Z?) who are connected with the situation to try and set up this workout? I don’t believe I have seen any report regarding such.

All this leads me to why this won’t work. I find it hard to believe that Kaepernick is an NFL quarterback. Last time he played, he went 2-14 (albeit on a terrible team) and was not very good that season. He’s now 3 years removed from that year and 32 years old and probably a backup quarterback at best, and if he shows that he is a capable starter then hats off to him. But I believe he is most likely going to be signed after this workout and be a backup quarterback on some team. What I also believe is that team will eventually cut him next season. And if they don’t cut him, he will be on board as a backup or a 3rd string quarterback not playing while many in the public will be lobbying for him to start as other quarterbacks around the league continue to falter. This will only perpetuate the public belief that the NFL “black-balled” Kaepernick and led to his career suffering. If he gets singed or not, it will once again raise the issue of the protests which is exactly what the NFL has worked towards acknowledging and remedying through community actions. I don’t think he is an NFL quarterback anymore and hopefully he proves me wrong, but if he proves me right and he does get signed by a team for publicity reasons or for some other non-football reason, the Colin Kaepernick vs. the NFL situation just got worse. Now to be clear, these opinions are unbiased. I neither like nor dislike Colin Kaepernick or the NFL’s handling of this, but what I most certainly do like is how positive conversations and actions were taken by the NFL and the players in union with one another in response to the protests. I would hate to see the topic of conversation revert back to the Colin Kaepernick “black-balling” and his protests when the headlines should continue to reference the positive steps being taken by the NFL and the players within the community and the good that has come out of this.