Kaepernick’s final drive gains valuable ground
Everyone seems to think Colin Kaepernick’s NFL career is over, so let’s write the epitaph. He started 64 games, regular season and playoffs. He was a thrilling runner, with an upright style reminiscent of a sprinter. He threw very few interceptions: almost historically few, actually. He probably should have won a Super Bowl the night the lights went out in New Orleans, but the San Francisco 49ers, with two running threats in the backfield, called three straight fade routes from the five-yard line to a guy who was six-foot-one. Some time after that, Kaepernick was essentially blackballed for his politics. There were highs and lows.
Kaepernick filed a collusion lawsuit this week, alleging that he was being kept out of the NFL by a conspiracy among the owners. The NFL Players Association has decided to back the lawsuit. There is a high burden of proof. Good luck to him.
But if this is the end of Kaepernick’s NFL career, let’s be honest: we were pretty much there already. Forty-seven other quarterbacks have thrown a pass in the league so far this year. They include Brian Hoyer, C.J. Beathard, Brett Hundley, Matt Cassel, E.J. Manuel, Kevin Hogan, Mike Glennon, Scott Tolzien, Tom Savage, Ryan Mallett, Brock Osweiler, Chad Henne and, of course, Jay Cutler.
What this collusion case mercifully ends is the persistent fantasy that some team would decide that if their quarterbacks were incompetent enough, if the performances were debilitating and humiliating enough, someone would decide, yes, Kaepernick was worth whatever distractions and attention and perceived trouble would come with him.
So now we can just watch football without the hope that any one quarterback could be so putrid that he could usher in some small amount of racial and political justice in America. Now, a terrible quarterback is just a terrible quarterback.
But Kaepernick isn’t just a quarterback any more. When players and owners met this week in New York to discuss the issues that led to Kaepernick’s protest during the anthem, he was invited by the players but not the owners. But owners came out claiming to have heard and been moved by the concerns of the players regarding inequality, police violence and systemic racism in America. To repeat: these were NFL owners.
“The NFL has agreed to commit to a long-term plan and use their platform to continue to raise awareness around the issues that affect our country,” safety Eric Reid, who started the protests during the anthem with Kaepernick last year, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “And to help us feel like we don’t need to protest. So we feel like we’re (going in) the right direction.”
And whether they wanted to or not, owners chose their players over the president. There was no move to legislate standing during the anthem. Owners talked about ignoring the president’s attempts to bait the league by barking madly into the internet machine about whatever he just saw on TV. Some owners expressed actual, measurable sympathy with the players’ beliefs. And commissioner Roger Goodell tried to walk the narrow path between convincing his players the NFL is sincere in addressing those concerns, and acknowledging the fans who refuse to listen to those con- cerns at all.
“I understand how our fans feel about this issue and we feel the same way,” Goodell told reporters. “Players should stand for the national anthem.
“We have about half a dozen players (who are still kneeling). We hope and are going to try to get that to zero.”
The NFL’s best intentions should always be treated with skepticism, but imagine: Kaepernick — and Reid — started a movement that could push the National Football League to actually attempt to influence society for the better. Or at least, pretend to. Yes, the NFL is really only good at marketing football, and if they treat fighting racism the way they handle suspension deliberations, rulebook management, pain- killer addiction or player safety, then . . . well, it won’t help, precisely.
But lord, the idea of them even trying? Kaepernick might never play again, but he did that.
Last week this space went 5-9. Just embracing the bad times, here. As always, all lines could change.