Ravens owner says protest factor in possible signing of Kaepernick

The Baltimore Ravens’ quarterback situation may be dire as training camp opens, but, like so many other NFL teams, the Ravens are not turning to Colin Kaepernick.

At least owner Steve Bisciotti was open about the reasons. Possibly wrong, but open.

Bisciotti and Ravens President Dick Cass explained why the Ravens bolstered their quarterback roster with an indoor league player rather than a Super Bowl quarterback while Joe Flacco is out nursing a sore back. Their reasons include Kaepernick’s national anthem protest of police brutality. Their methods involve sounding out Ray Lewis and asking for prayers.

“We’ve very sensitive to it and we’re monitoring it, and we’re still, as [General Manager] Ozzie [Newsome] said, ‘scrimmaging it,’ “Bisciotti said at a fan forum on Sunday. “So pray for us.”

Kaepernick became a national lightning rod when his protest began a year ago. He completed the season with the San Francisco 49ers, then opted out of his contract in March and since then he has seen a number of teams in need of a quarterback kick the tires on other players. As the controversy blossomed into a question of whether NFL owners were blackballing him, John Mara of the New York Giants admitted that fans had threatened in letters to never come “to another Giants game. It wasn’t one or two letters. It was a lot. It’s an emotional, emotional issue for a lot of people, more so than any other issue I’ve run into.”

Commissioner Roger Goodell, who was in attendance, denied Kaepernick was being blackballed. “He can’t be because we’re not,” Goodell said. “The clubs are making those individual evaluations.”