It’s August, which means it’s time for Colin Kaepernick – the NFL’s original anthem protester who hasn’t played a snap in eight years – to tell everyone he’s ready to lead a team to a championship, and this year is no different.
Kaepernick was in Paris for the Olympic Games and, while there, was interviewed by Britain’s Sky News. In the interview, he told them he still desired to return to the playing field.
“We’re still training, still pushing,” Kaepernick said. “So, hopefully. We’ve just got to get one of these team owners to open up.
“It’s something I’ve trained my whole life for, so to be able to step back on the field, I think that would be a major moment, a major accomplishment for me. I think I could bring a lot to a team and help them win a championship.
Kaepernick began kneeling in protest during the national anthem early in the 2016 season and continued the pre-game demonstration throughout the year. The former 49er took his last snap in the final regular-season game of the 2016-2017 season.
However, every year since the conclusion of that fateful season, Kaepernick has voiced his desire to return to the league. This is despite the fact that he has likened the NFL draft selection process to a slave auction.
In the series Colin In Black & White, which Kaepernick narrates, the former 49er appears in a scene where he talks about NFL prospects being “poked, prodded, and examined” for defects before the NFL Draft. The players at the “combine” then leave the NFL field and enter a mid-1800s slave auction where white landowners examine slaves for purchase.
In the scene, Kaepernick says this is how “they” establish a “power dynamic.” The scene closes with the NFL coach and slave auctioneer shaking hands against the backdrop of bonded slaves in an attempt to establish a generational link between the professional athlete selection process and slavery.
https://twitter.com/MythinformedMKE/status/1454561312990715904
Why Kaepernick would want to rejoin the NFL if he believes it is akin to slavery is anyone’s guess.
His absence from the league is not the NFL’s fault. The league arranged for Kaepernick to work out in front of all 32 teams in 2019. However, Kaepernick rejected the league’s chosen venue and went to a local high school instead. The Raiders also brought him in for a workout in 2022, an event that former Raider Warren Sapp called a “disaster.”
If anyone intends to bring Kaepernick in for a workout, which they don’t, they better hurry. The NFL season starts September 5.
