At Yahoo Sports, Shalise Manza Young asserted that former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick expertly “dismantled” the league’s narrative about him. As with all defenses of Kaepernick, nothing could be further from the truth.
Kaepernick is once again lobbying for a contract from the league he compared to slavery. He has now said he would happily play as a backup and that he is incredibly popular. “So if you’re talking about the business side, it makes sense. If you’re talking about the playing side, let me compete,” Kaepernick said in an interview. “You can evaluate me from there.”
You see, Kaepernick made money for Nike, and his jersey became a top seller, so that means he’s the secret ingredient the multibillion-dollar league has been missing.
Young thinks this is quite the masterstroke. If the “NFL team owner class” actually cared about racism, the league would have condemned the entire state of Arizona over its voter laws, as well as several other states, including Texas and Georgia, presumably. And “were all members of the owner class actually committed to winning, one of them would have signed Kaepernick years ago,” she said.
Not one of these points holds up to scrutiny.
First, the NFL doesn’t need Kaepernick to make money. Yes, Kaepernick’s jersey shot to the top of the bestsellers list during his protests. Former quarterback Tim Tebow also shot to the top of the list when the Jacksonville Jaguars signed him as a tight end for three months last offseason. Tebow, like Kaepernick, has a fan base, but the NFL doesn’t need either of those players, and there is a reason neither of them is currently on an NFL team.
In fact, the league’s ratings dipped in 2016 and 2017 when Kaepernick and other players were protesting. Obviously, the NFL was big enough to brush off the loss of revenue, but if you are “talking about the business side,” it does not suggest that there’s any financial incentive to sign Kaepernick.
And, of course, the only thing the “owner class” cares about is winning. That’s precisely why Kaepernick isn’t on a roster. In 2015, he graded out as the second-worst passer in the league. In 2016, he was the worst. He then priced himself out of a chance to play for the Denver Broncos. He was a already backup-caliber player when he last played in 2016. Now, Kaepernick is gracious enough to accept a backup role after five years of inactivity when it isn’t even clear he could win a backup job anymore.
The only thing Kaepernick has successfully dismantled since he started his political posturing was the idea that he had anything to say that was worth listening to. The mythical aura that has been built up around him is laughable. He is a walking contradiction whose empty activism is not rooted in reality.
Kaepernick has made a very lucrative career out of doing nothing. The NFL will probably just let him stay there.
