3 Reasons Why Colin Kaepernick’s NFL Career Is Over

The writing has been on the wall for some time.

Image Credit: Getty Images

NFL starting quarterbacks are dropping like flies.

Saints All-Pro Drew Brees is out with torn thumb ligaments, Big Ben is on the shelf for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Jets are down to third-string nobody Luke Faulk after starter Sam Darnold caught mono and his backup Trevor Semien wrecked his knee on Monday night. 

The Jaguars’ huge offseason acquisition, Nick Foles, was lost for the season in Week 1. 

That’s four teams, or 12.5% of the league, losing starting quarterbacks within the first two weeks of the season. The backups replacing these guys are hardly NFL proven talent.

In a perfect world, Colin Kaepernick would get a shot to fill one of these positions. The stories about the possible teams that Kap could sign with have begun to flow, but nobody’s calling.  

Is he better than backups like Mason Rudolph, Teddy Bridgewater, Luke Faulk and Gardner Minshew? Probably. 

But I’ll bet my next born that we will never get the chance to truly find out. Even Jesse Jackson would concede that. 

Here are 3 Reasons Why Colin Kaepernick Will Never Play In NFL Again

1. Battle of Pride 

Kaepernick and the owners jointly share some culpability on this one. Kap has made it clear that he’s not begging for a job and he wasn’t publicly campaigning for one until recently.

Some feel like he’s only hurt his cause by not being more vocal and expressive with his desire to play in the NFL again.  He’s almost made it easier for the owners to ignore him.

The people would love to hear him speak more. Why remain stubbornly silent if they aren’t going to let you back into the League anyway?

NFL owners feel like they made a lot of concessions when negotiating with the Players Coalition to find a way to stop the anthem-kneeling and also show some (false) modicum of concern and understanding for the players’ need to fight against social injustice and police brutality. 

There are those people who feel like the owners should have done more than throw money at the situation and the players should have held out for Kaepernick’s inclusion in the negotiations. At the end of the day, the owners feel like they dodged a bullet. 

Bringing Colin Kaepernick back into the fold would be the ultimate satisfaction for disgruntled people of color and Kap loyalists who still refuse to watch an NFL game because of the former Super Bowl quarterback’s blackballing.  

Doubling back on Kap is one move the owners are not going to make. They can deal with the new player empowerment era, which has seen two players recently try to force trades to other teams (Jalen Ramsey, Miami Dolphins safety Minkah Fitzpatrick to Steelers).

The Kap blackball will forever be their final stand in an anthem controversy that rocked the nation and turned the NFL upside down for a few years. 

In the same way that Pete Rose will forever be banned from managing in baseball because of his 80s gambling scandal, Kaepernick will be unofficially banned from the NFL for disrupting the money machine by taking a social stance. It’s messed up but true.

These owners would hire a one-armed donkey to backup an injured starter before they ever give Kaep another opportunity to suit up again. 

2. Kap’s Fractured Relationships

The beginning of the end for Kapernick was when his relationship with Malcolm Jenkins and the Players Coalition fractured after they negotiated the $89 million deal with the NFL. Both sides agreed that Kaepernick wouldn’ take part in those negotiations.

That decision alone started a civil rift. It was the first sign that Kap was losing support among the players and losing leverage because he had lost his NFL platform. 

There was a division between Kaepernick’s long-term goals and many of the players who were still in the League and wanted to put the drama surrounding the anthem behind them. 

Once players stopped kneeling and Kaepernick was vindicated with the Nike deal and the undisclosed settlement he accepted in his collusion lawsuit against the league, the momentum of his movement and the support he received from so many players started to subside.

Kaepernick’s Nike commercial recently won an Emmy. It’s not like he’s sitting around broken financially. He’s getting checks for his noble sacrifice and uncompromising devotion to helping others.

Some players were even salty that Kaepernick didn’t disclose the settlement he got from the NFL to the millions of people who supported him through the ordeal. 

This caused a further divide. When Jay-Z crossed the picket line and constructed a deal with Kap’s arch enemies, Roger Goodell, and the NFL, it was the final nail in the coffin for the movement that Kaepernick started.

Sides were divided on if Jay basically hijacked the movement, got a bag, and announced that athletes need to “move past kneeling,” which further weakened Kapernick’s position, and fanbase, ensuring that the owners wouldn’t ever have to do business with Kap again. 

Jay replaced Kap as a more palatable face of Black social injustice. At one time, Jay-Z stood firmly with Kap, even refusing to perform at the Super Bowl and rubbing it on some album lyrics.

Now, Jigga’s relationship with and demeanor towards the League is more cordial, accepting and diplomatic than Kap’s. Some say the spirit of the movement was undermined. Others say Jay-Z is giving Black folks a seat at an exclusive and influential table. 

Their thinking is that Kapernick has no shot of getting hired considering that there isn’t one Black owner among the 32 NFL teams. If Jay-Z could work his way into an ownership position, then he could sign Kaepernick.

Unfortunately, that line of thinking is unrealistic and would take forever. Kaepernick would be well past his prime if that ever did occur.

3. Blackballed For Life

Kap’s agent reportedly reached out to several NFL teams that would appear to be in desperate need of a quarterback.

 “Colin is literally in the best shape of his life,” one source told SNY. “He’s been working out five days a week at 5 a.m. for three years. He wants to play and his agent has been contacting teams in need of a QB.”

.When you see a video of him, he appears in great shape and he’s throwing lasers around the field.

His potential for success is the main reason why he’ll never get a call from an NFL team. The owners wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if Kaepernick returned and performed great. It would give him a larger platform and celebrity to challenge the NFL again if he chose.

The League wants no part of that risk. They would rather blackball him and let social media fight it out as to why Kap is unemployed. The haters will say he’s been away from the game for two years and is washed up. That’s just talking to keep him off the field. 

With NFL quarterbacks dropping like flies and the low quality of backups being entrusted with positions they are almost destined to fail in, the fact that Kaepernick is not getting any calls says it all. 

The writing has been on the wall for some time. The NFL won’t stop colluding to keep Kaepernick out of the game, and they are committed to sticking to the plan.


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