Kaep-tain America
Alex Scantlebury goes off on the complete absurdity of Colin Kaepernick’s continued unemployment.
The NFL draft came and went, and every NFL team is now moving into OTAs and getting ready for training camp.
The free-agent market has been picked virtually clean, with every big-name available player coming off the board.
With one exception, Colin Kaepernick.
The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback is still unemployed, and let’s be honest, barring a situation where some team loses two of their three quarterbacks on the depth chart, he is likely to remain unemployed.
This whole situation is completely and unequivocally ridiculous. Kaep is a premiere athlete, with great speed and a Howitzer for an arm. He is more than just a serviceable backup. As Pete Carroll so strongly implied, “he is a starter.” The only reason that he is not currently on an NFL roster is because he peacefully stood up for what he truly believed, without ever resorting to violence.
In the modern era, the public image of the NFL, the teams, and each player almost becomes paramount to their actual production on the field. Just take a look at Ray Rice. Rice hasn’t played a down in the league in years because of his publicized attack on his then fiancé. Rice is a public relations nightmare because he crossed a line you just don’t cross, but I guarantee you that teams kept an eye on him for a while in case a need arose for a premium caliber running back.
Mike Vick spent two years in prison for running a dog fighting ring, but he managed to make his way back to the big time. Plaxico Burris spent time in jail for shooting himself in the leg and he made a comeback. Ray Lewis was charged with murder, and not only did he stay on the Baltimore Raven’s roster, he went on to have a first-ballot hall of fame career, guaranteed to be enshrined in 2018 (which he does deserve).
All of the above mentioned situations were nightmare scenarios from a public relations standpoint, but with the exception Ray Rice, all was forgiven and mostly forgotten. The fans didn’t give a second thought to the past, football is religion in the US.
All Colin Kaepernick did was refuse to stand for the national anthem because he was protesting the racial injustice that is plaguing the United States of America. Kaepernick kept his word, and my God, when people realized what he was doing they lost their damn minds. You would have thought that he was selling national secrets to the Russians while having a tea party in North Korea.
Because of his “lack of respect” for the men and women who served their country, and the flag for which they died to protect, Kaepernick has been blackballed from getting a job. The same people who launch into rants about their rights provided to them by the constitution are condemning Kaep for exercising those exact same rights.
The word hypocritical comes to mind.
Colin Kaepernick is a role model, end of discussion. He showed the world his integrity and honour when he continued to protest racial inequality even when he knew it could cost him his career. A career I might add that would end up paying him tens of millions of dollars over its course. He put his money where his mouth was when he promised to donate $1 million dollars over the course of a calendar year to charities fighting racial prejudice and inequality. To date his has already donated $700,000.
He did not rant to the media. He did not blame anyone else for what he was going through. He stood, and continues to stand for what he believes to be right (and he is right by the way). He has led by example from day one and you can’t ask for more from your quarterback.
In the age of “image is everything”, I can’t fathom for a single moment why he wasn’t the first signed the first day he became available. Sure, he would have brought a media circus to town with him, but it would have been a predominantly positive media circus.
NFL executives, please remove your collective heads from your collective rectums. Fifty years from now, history will shine a different light on Colin Kaepernick. He will be judged a hero, a true patriot, and a good man. More than I can say for those that threw him under the bus in the interest of ticket sales and PR.
But hey, if you don’t want him, well take him up here north of the border.
Alex Scantlebury is a multi-sport contributor for theocho.ca. He is a professor for the Algonquin College public relations program. Aaron and Riley would like to thank him for giving them an extra hour each week to spend on Bleacher Report while he was teaching. Follow Alex on Twitter at@pen_ink_page.
