Just when I thought we were past all of the grandstanding involving Colin Kaepernick, esteemed sportswriter Scott Ostler rolled out with this bit of propaganda.
I really thought we were done with Kap. He would fade away and die a young death like most ex-NFL'ers. But no, Mr. Ostler needs to keep injecting Race into matters in order sell more copies of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Ostler's argument is that because lightning rod-Colin Kaepernick isn't signed by a team, then lightning rod-Tim Tebow shouldn't be either. American Racism is proven because Black Kaepernick is still unemployed while White (Christian) Tebow now has a job in the NFL.
Ostler, though a very well-decorated sportswriter, continues to omit that Kaepernick opted out of his 49'ers contract all those years ago. When Colin Kaepernick played for the Nevada Wolf Pack, his coach was Chris Ault. If Chris Ault wasn't retired, but an offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, I guarantee you that the Chiefs would take a flyer on Kaepernick as a tight-end for $1,000,000. Just like Tebow's old college coach took a flyer on Tebow for about .6% of the salary cap.
Kaepernick wanted to be a starting quarterback making $15 -$20 million per year. That's why he doesn't have a job today. I know Kaepernick's not worse than a lot of quarterbacks on NFL rosters right now, but once you factored in the activism, that complicated Kaepernick's worth to a franchise. You know who else the NFL screws as free agents for various reasons from injury history to off-the-field issues? Nearly every player over 30 not named Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady.
Oliver Luck retired at 29, the same age as when Kaepernick opted out. Don't get me wrong, the NFL is a meatgrinder that uses up players and tosses them out. But Kaepernick isn't unlike other Black AND White players who find themselves on the wrong end of one-year incentive laden deals. If Kaepernick wanted to stay in the NFL, he had to lower his price tag. Colin Kaepernick liked having the platform that the NFL afforded him, one of the biggest platforms in the world. If anything, Kaepernick should have wanted to take less money in order to have access to that big stage. But that's not what happened. Every time he's passed over for a QB job, people use the NFL platform to reiterate institutional racism, instead of the NFL's shitty business practices.
Who would I compare Kaepernick to, today, in 2021. Hmmm, maybe Andy Dalton? Around 25th to 30th best? Andy Dalton's 2020 contract was $3 million guaranteed with around $4 million in incentives. (Did Andy Dalton help the Dallas Cowboys to the Super Bowl last year? Uh, no.)
Every single minute that ticks away, Kaepernick's price tag continues to trend downward. That trend should put his price tag at about a $1,000,000 for a backup quarterback job (with 4 years rust), or a $1,000,000 tight end.
You do know that if you google Colin Kaepernick, it comes up as AMERICAN ACTIVIST, right?
This whole Kaepernick/Tebow Issue is all about advancing agendas, which have already been advanced ad nauseam.
Why doesn't Ostler go ahead and use his contacts in the sports world to get Kaepernick that million dollar backup QB job? Because Kaepernick's not interested in playing anymore. If he wanted to play, he could've lowered his price tag to an amount that would have made himself enviable to a franchise. Instead Kaepernick's interested in the appearance of wanting to play while using the Ostlers of the world to promote his activism.