The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Jackson: I wanted Kaepernick
Hue Jackson, the Browns’ coach from January 2016 until he was fired midway through 2018, is saying he wanted Colin Kaepernick as his quarterback after the Browns finished 1-15 in 2016.
Jackson made the comment June 4 during an interview on The Really Big Show on WKNR AM-850 with Tony Rizzo and Aaron Goldhammer.
“I wanted him,” Jackson said. “It just didn’t work out. Obviously, those things do have to work from a finance, draft, whatever all that is. And that wasn’t my decision.
“I’ve known Colin. When I was with the Raiders (2011), we were going to draft him when I was there. So, obviously he’d been a really good player in the league. He had tremendous success. He is a guy who has stood for something. I think everybody is seeing exactly where he was coming from … I always thought Colin deserved an opportunity in this league, but he has to want to play. If he really wanted to play, I think he would have a chance again.”
Kaepernick hasn’t played since he went 1-10 as a starter with the 49ers in 2016, yet his name comes up every time a team has a quarterback opening.
The Browns definitely needed a quarterback after the 1-15 disaster, but instead of signing Kaepernick, former Director of Football Operations Sashi Brown selected DeShone Kizer in the second round of the 2017 draft. Kizer went 0-15 as a starter. The Browns finished 0-16.
Kaepernick infamously knelt in 2016 when the national anthem was played before the start of football games. His quiet but highly visible protests riled many fans, but he did not care.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL Media after a preseason game in 2016. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
The perception by some in the media is Kaepernick has been blackballed for his protests. He was 2-6 in 2015. Now 32 years old, Kaepernick hasn’t had a winning season since he was 12-4 with the 49ers in 2013.
According to a 2017 story by CBS Sports, Kaepernick was looking for between $9-10 million a season the year after he went 1-10 with the 49ers.
Some other players followed Kaepernick’s lead, but those protests subsided over the last couple years. Now the anger is back after a white police officer knelt on the back of George Floyd’s neck during an arrest in Minneapolis last week. Floyd died. Derek Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder.
The incident thrust Kaepernick and potential protests during games in 2020 back into the news. The protests and riots nationwide that followed Floyd’s death also make the coaching imbalance in the NFL highly visible.
Only four NFL head coaches are minorities — Brian Flores in Miami, Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh, Ron Rivera in Washington and Anthony Lynn in San Diego.
Andrew Berry with the Browns and Chris Grier with the Dolphins are the only minority general managers in the NFL.
The NFL has the “Rooney Rule,” which requires teams to interview at least one minority when it has an opening at head coach or general manager. It has not had the desired effect, so last month the owners came up with an incentive plan to reward teams with higher draft picks if it would hire a minority for one of those two positions.
The plan was not wellreceived and has been tabled.
“I think sometimes you can do the wrong thing while trying to do the right thing,” Lynn said on CBS Sports Radio.
Jackson was never without a coaching job from 1987 until he was fired by the Browns. He spent the last few weeks of 2018 as a special assistant to former Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, but has not worked since.
Jackson was 3-36-1 as Browns coach. He was asked during the Rizzo-Goldhammer interview whether race has played a role in him not getting another job in the NFL, even as an offensive coordinator. Jackson was 8-8 as coach of the Raiders in 2011.
“When people ask these questions about why I don’t have a job, let’s look at the scope of the National Football League,” Jackson said. “There’s two minority offensive coordinators in the National Football League. There’s two quarterback coaches now. There’s four head coaches. So, there’s not many right now. How can I expect to be in a situation within a league that really, at this particular time, don’t have people in those positions?”
Jackson said minorities have been short-changed since the birth of the NFL in 1920.
“We’re after an issue when it comes to NFL players, coaches or whatever it is. If you think about what’s been normal in the NFL and what’s been right — the league simply wasn’t built with minorities being involved in the beginning,” Jackson said. “Just go back and look at the history.
“Now, all of a sudden, the quarterbacks in the NFL are starting to change that. This is the 100-year history of the league. So there’s a problem. I see the league trying to do something about it, but we still need to dig into it and understand it so that we can make good decisions and right decisions so we can continue to move forward.”
Jackson is 54 years old.