Just off the top of my admittedly feeble head (I'm too lazy to officially look it all up), I can think of many NFL quarterbacks that have already gone down to injury this year.
Carson Palmer of the Arizona Cardinals.
Derek Carr of the Oakland (soon to be Las Vegas) Raiders.
Aaron Rodgers of the Packers.
Andrew Luck in Indy.
Ryan Tannehill of the Dolphins.
Teddy Bridgewater is still rehabbing in Minnesota, and Sam Bradford, an injury always waiting to happen, is dinged up again.
Now Deshaun Watson, fresh off a collegiate national championship, has bit the dust in Houston.
There's probably a few more, but who's counting?
At any rate, that's a bunch of replacements that have had to be thrown into the fire.
Yet still Colin Kaepernick has not been offered a job.
Yes, I get it. Once upon a time he was quite the QB for the San Fran 49ers. Then the knee/protest thing happened, which thrust him into a not-so-good spotlight. Subsequently, he walked away from SF into basically no-man's land -- sometimes known as free agency. In hindsight, perhaps a dumb move.
Whether or not CK is still talented enough to be an NFL starting quarterback can be debated, with both sides likely offering up valid evidence. Let's just say opinions vary.
Yet in a politically blind world, it's pretty tough to argue CK ranks somewhere below all of the no-names that have been offered NFL contracts in the meantime. Not even as a backup? Really?
Currently, he and his legal eagles are pursuing a lawsuit trying to prove beyond the proverbial reasonable doubt, or preponderance of the evidence, that the owners of the teams have colluded against him. Basically, they assert he's been "blackballed". No doubt, phone records and such things as emails will be subpoenaed to hopefully bolster their case.
To all of which, yours truly says -- good luck with that.
Even if the plaintiffs eventually prevail -- and it could take years to wind its way through the court system to a final resolution -- no judge or jury has the power to order any team or owner to employ him. Sure, he might get a pile of dough out of it, but this latest gambit in effect sealed his doom as to ever playing again in the NFL. That's not even to mention the age/rust factor that will go along with being out of the league for all that time.
Currently, teams can find any number of reasons not to offer him a job. Stats can be twisted to fit anybody's agenda. Or a team can merely state he wouldn't fit well into their particular system and game philosophy. Etc, etc.
But the heretofore unspeakable elephant in the room remains the PR disaster any team would face by bring Kaepernick on board.
It could fairly be said the NFL and, by extension, their fans have always been a rather patriotic bunch. This is why we see the giant American flags on the field before games, the military color guards, and the jet fly-overs, among other festivities. And of course, the playing/singing of the national anthem.
[Idle thought. If the anthem is that sacred, why do they allow so many "artists" to absolutely butcher it while giving their own renditions? Is it too much to ask they sing it like it was originally written, instead of trying to show off? I mean, is it about them or about the country and what it stands for? This in itself shows hypocrisy. But nobody wants to talk about that, though it's been blatantly obvious for decades. WTF?]
True, most NFL owners and their front offices strive to put a winning team on the field. Also true is they get a ton of money from the TV folks and through sales of their own paraphernalia. It might well be they could still turn a handsome profit if fan attendance was abysmal at their stadiums.
But they don't want to see that. It would be embarrassing, if nothing else. Even billionaires are sensitive to that sort of thing -- maybe.
The bottom line is any team bringing Kaepernick to town and putting him on the field might face a fan revolt. Even lousy franchises over the decades, like Cleveland and Detroit, have a bit of pride. I think. Maybe.
So here's wishing dear Colin well in any and all of his future endeavors. Hey, he's just a dude that took a stand, or a knee, trying to make a point. In the whole scheme of things, this shouldn't be a big deal.
But oh my, it turned out to be. Yep, he got the attention he wanted, alright. But probably not the WAY he wanted.
The whole country, from the President on down to talking heads and chain mail senders have been sniping away ever since.
The moral of the story?
Everybody has a right to espouse a cause, and CK's was righteous in many ways.
But careful how one goes about it.
Sometimes opening up a particular can of worms without thinking through what might happen down the road can come back to seriously bite one in the keester.
Welcome to the real world, Mr. K.
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