It has been nearly three-and-a-half years since Colin Kaepernick played in an NFL game. It’s the league’s worst-kept secret that teams have been discouraged from signing him, whether by pressure from ownership, the league or both. But now, in a moment of unprecedented social upheaval following the death of George Floyd, and worldwide condemnation of racism and police brutality, the NFL may not be able to simply hide behind half-steps, doing the bare minimum to appear as if they are not themselves the purveyors of racist institutions.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio joined KNBR on Friday to discuss Kaepernick and the NFL, which later on Thursday announced it would commit $250 million over the next 10 years to combat racial injustice. As Florio later broke down, it’s about $780k per team, per year, so while it’s a substantial sum, it’s not exactly a form of pure altruism.
Florio called out the NFL for what he perceives as a wait-it-out approach, one which he doesn’t think will work. He provided two suggestions for what the league should do to practically prove itself committed to fighting racism.
“It’s time many believe, to make things right with Colin Kaepernick,” Florio said. “The league’s approach is, keep your head low, keep your mouth shut and just hope it blows over. Every negative PR development eventually blows over. That’s the mindset I believe and I think they’re going to try to just wait this out and hope that the steam goes out of this instead of it reaching a critical mass, but I don’t know that it’s gonna go away because it is such an obvious marker.
“I think there are two things for the NFL if the NFL is truly going to embrace this moment of change that we are seeing embraced elsewhere in the sports world… the two things the NFL can do: number one, get Colin Kaepernick back in the league. And number two, get a new nickname for the Washington franchise. That thing continues to hide in plain sight, a dictionary-defined slur. If you’re serious about change, if you’re serious about ending racism, it’s racism in all forms that has to end and that’s one that needs to go.”
The chances of Kaepernick getting that shot?
“I’d say it’s unlikely,” Florio said. “But we see how much everything is changed. The world has changed dramatically in the last three months.”