Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been out of the NFL since 2016. Kaepernick of course caused a lot of debate and division when he made the decision to kneel during the playing of the national anthem before games, and while he has worked out for teams, most recently with the Las Vegas Raiders last year, a team has yet to sign him to a deal.
That workout with the Raiders was his first since 2016 as the franchise was searching for backups to then-starter Derek Carr. The team ultimately decided to go with Jarrett Stidham and Nick Mullens and Kaepernick has yet to have another workout since, nor does he have any upcoming.
The former 49ers star recently spoke about that workout in an interview with Gilberto Manzano of Sports Illustrated and believes he reminded many of what he was capable of on that day:
“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.”
As for why the Raiders chose not to sign him, Kaepernick believes it was likely the same political issues that he thinks have kept him out of the league for this long:
“I’ve heard a lot of excuses over the years,” Kaepernick says, “but most of the time it ends up, ‘Oh, we’re going to see how the guys that we have do.’ With the Raiders’ situation last year, that was Stidham and Nick Mullens, which to me, you just compare résumés and capabilities, on top of the workout and the feedback, it’s like, ‘O.K., cool.’
“Obviously, there’s something else within this decision. 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 upon that, not the political bias that you have.”
It is impossible to judge whether Kaepernick is right in his belief or not as only those in attendance for that workout know how he looked. While he is right in that he obviously has a better career resume than Stidham or Mullens, it doesn’t necessarily mean he outperformed them in the workouts for the Raiders.
It is understandable why Kaepernick feels the way he does because he is clearly more talented than many other quarterbacks who have jobs right now. Political issues shouldn’t come into play, but it seems very possible that NFL teams don’t want to deal with any distractions signing him may cause.
