Colin Kaepernick last played in the NFL on January 1, 2017. Whether the product of collusion or coincidentally individual business decisions resulting from the potential impact of giving Kaepernick a roster spot on a team’s bottom line, he was shunned by the NFL for his role in sparking protests during the national anthem.
Even now, he still wants to play.
“I’m going to keep pushing ,” Kaepernick told Gilberto Manzano of SI.com earlier this month, in an item posted on Thursday. “I’m going to keep fighting for it because I know I can step on the field and play. Every workout, every opportunity I’ve had to show that, the feedback has always been positive. Everything from, ‘He’s still an elite player,’ to ‘The workout was great; it was better than expected.'”
He has had only one official workout with a team since becoming a free agent in March 2017. Last May, the Raiders brought him in. They did not offer him a contract, and no team has shown any interest in him in the 13 months since the workout occurred.
“When I had my workout with the Raiders last year, even training with guys, there’s a decent amount of people who may have forgotten what I was capable of doing on the field, so any chance to be able to remind people of what I can do out there, I look forward to and embrace, and I look forward to the day that I get to step on the field and show people what I can do,” Kaepernick said.
Kaepernick was asked why his workout with the Raiders did not result in a roster spot.
“I’ve heard a lot of excuses over the years, but most of the time it ends up, ‘Oh, we’re going to see how the guys that we have done,'” Kaepernick said. “With the Raiders’ situation last year, that was [Jarrett] Stidham and Nick Mullens [as the backups to Derek Carr]which to me, you just compare resumes and capabilities, on top of the workout and the feedback, it’s like, ‘OK, cool.'”
Kaepernick continues to believe that he’s being overlooked for reasons other than his skills and abilities.
“Obviously, there’s something else within this decision,” Kaepernick said of the Raiders’ decision not to offer him a contract. “To me, that’s typically what it ends up being, or has been for the last seven years. So, I just want the opportunity to come in, show what I can do on the field. Judge me based on that, not the political bias that you have.”
The biggest problem that Kaepernick now faces is that six-plus years of “something else” has resulted in something tangible. It’s been too long since he played.
That’s the easiest reason for teams to avoid him now. It’s been too long. The league successfully kept him out for so long that the duration of the absence at some point became the easiest justification for continuing to keep him out.
Kaepernick said he’s still training five or six days a week. It’s admirable. But it’s also irrelevant. He hasn’t played in more than six years. Even now, with rosters at 90, he’s not on a team.
It’s no longer a matter of right or wrong or up or down or woke up or whatever. He hasn’t played in more than six years. It’s over. It’s done. Last year’s workout with the Raiders was a surprise. A roster spot at this point would be more than a stunner.