The time has come for an NFL team to bring Colin Kaepernick into training camp this summer. If you didn’t see it over the weekend, Kaepernick took part in a “throwing event” during halftime of the University of Michigan spring football game that was similar to a “pro day” workout that a college player would go through before the draft. The “throwing event” was coordinated by Michigan Head Coach Jim Harbaugh–who was Kaepernick’s first head coach in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers.
I don’t say Kaepernick should be brought into camp because he was so impressive in that “throwing event”–passing to college guys who were not being guarded by defenders and everyone was running around in t-shirts and shorts–but rather to force a “put up or shut up” moment in the continuous debate over Kaepernick’s status in sports. Right now, he is the “Former star quarterback blacklisted from the NFL due to his stance on social justice issues”. In the minds of many, he was slinging touchdowns and juking out entire defenses with awe-inspiring scrambles before he started taking a knee for the National Anthem and was run out of the league.
What serious NFL fans remember is a quarterback that never recovered from shoulder, knee and thumb injuries in 2015, who lost his starting job to Blaine Gabbert, who went 3-16 as a starter in his last two seasons in the league, and who started taking a knee only after losing his starting position again in 2016. I’d compare Colin Kaepernick to Jimi Hendrix or Kurt Cobain as those hailed as all-time greats largely because they died before they could put out lousy music–but Kaepernick has some albums full of yodeling in his catalog.
Nonetheless, for the last five years every poor performance by a (white) backup quarterback pressed into starting duties, and “throwing event” held in shorts and t’s at some small college campus has renewed the debate over whether the NFL still has Kaepernick on its “(Expletive) List”. It didn’t help that Commissioner Roger Goodell offered a word-salad apology to Kaepernick in 2020 about “wishing we had listened sooner”–like a backup quarterback was John the Baptist preaching in the desert.
But now the time has come to give Colin Kaepernick his chance to prove all of those who believe he isn’t playing because he really can’t play wrong. A chance to show that other teams signing Baker Mayfield, Gardner Minshew, Blaine Gabbert, Kirk Cousins, Mac Jones, Andy Dalton, and Mitch Trubiski the errors of their ways.
And I have the perfect landing spot for Kaepernick: the Cleveland Browns. I don’t say that as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan wanting to see a division rival’s locker room thrown into chaos and a media circus. I say that because Cleveland has already signed Deshaun Watson to a 5-year, 230-million dollar guaranteed contract. That is the same Deshaun Watson who sat the bench the entire 2021 NFL season with the Houston Texans because he was accused of inappropriate physical contact by 22-women–but was never brought up on any criminal charges. Watson’s banishment from the NFL would be applauded by the same folks that decry Kaepernick’s “banishment”–and point to the monster contract as “proof that sports teams will put up with any conduct, so long as the guy gives them a chance to win”–which would also explain why no one has signed Colin Kaepernick for the last five years.
While he may talk a big game about being willing to accept a backup role because he “knows he’ll become a starter again eventually”, returning to the NFL represents a huge risk for Kaepernick. Nobody outside of the New York Times, the Washington Post, Teen Vogue and Vanity Fair is going to seek out the 2nd or 3rd string quarterback on a sub-.500 NFL team to get his thoughts on the next police-involved shooting or state legislature approving a measure that bans placement of ballot drop boxes on the front porches of every person. Nike doesn’t build major marketing campaigns around guys that throw 3 interceptions in pre-season games. And publishing houses tend not to care about the personal struggles for justice of a guy that carries a clipboard for a living.
So let’s stop with this charade and put the pads back on and see what this guy can do. If he lights up the league, then NFL talent evaluators and serious fans will have to admit they were flat out wrong. And if it goes poorly and the game film, stats and the scoreboard bear that out, then we can all move on–even if there will still be plenty of people unwilling to do so.
