Colin Kaepernick was once about five yards away from being a Super Bowl champion. Who knows how things would have turned out for the former San Francisco 49ers QB? One thing’s for sure: Kaepernick remains hopeful about returning to the NFL despite having been away from the game for seven full seasons.
That’s a long time in the grand scheme of professional sports hiatuses, let alone for NFL quarterbacks.
At 36 years old, Kaepernick is still younger than New York Jets starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers (40) and the same age as Rams’ Matthew Stafford, Falcons’ Kirk Cousins, and Steelers’ Russell Wilson. Let that sink in.
Even still, unlike these active players, Kaepernick, has not played since his time with the San Francisco 49ers. So the argument, he’s been away too long is now starting to have validity. But the argument should actually be, he’s been exiled too long because we know it wasn’t his choice.
Get this: during a recent interview with Sky Sports from the Paris Olympics, Kaepernick stated, “We’re still training, still pushing. So hopefully we just gotta get one of these team owners to open up.” He also added, “I could bring a lot to a team and help them win a championship.”
Way back when Kaepernick led the 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII in the 2012 season and returned to the NFC Championship game the following year. His decision to kneel during the national anthem in 2016 as a protest against racial injustice became a major point of controversy. After that season, he opted out of his contract with the 49ers and has not been signed by another team since. As long as we know he NEVER protested the national anthem. Period.
In what some feel wasn’t the best move, in October 2017, Kaepernick filed a collusion grievance against the NFL, which was resolved with a settlement in February 2019. Maybe he should have waited for the mediation to play out, perhaps he should not have settled, or maybe he made the best choice at the right time.
Kaepernick has since continually expressed an unwavering desire to return to the league. Last season, he even wrote to the New York Jets offering to join their practice squad as a “risk-free contingency plan” after Aaron Rodgers’ season-ending Achilles tendon injury. The Jets declined his offer, leaving Kaepernick without an NFL team.
Kaepernick told Sky Sports, “It’s something I’ve trained my whole life for, so to be able to step back on the field, I think that would be a major moment, major accomplishment for me.”
Whether Kaepernick receives another shot or not, one thing is true, time is not on his side.
