© Neville E. Guard | 2017 Jan 1
A month ago, Colin Kaepernick’s return to the NFL seemed as likely as the league publicly supporting peaceful protesting during the national anthem. Ah, how times have changed.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell posted a video to Twitter last week that the league would “encourage peaceful protests” from it’s players. It may not have mentioned Kaepernick by name, but it’s the closest thing to a mea culpa that we’ve seen from a league that was at least complicit in the former 49ers quarterback’s blackballing.
It would also seem then that a return to the NFL is back on the table for Kaepernick, who is reportedly still working out every day in order to stay ready should a team come knocking.
But it’s not as simple as a team calling and Kap accepting, according to Jeffri Chadiha of NFL Network, who pointed out a few complicating factors working against the QBs return to the league when he joined Papa & Lund on Tuesday.
“I think it’s more complicated than people make it out to be,” Chadiha said. “I’ll say two things: One, I’ve always admired Kaepernick and the stance he took, and the way he’s managed this thing on his end of it, in terms of putting his career out there, taking a stance. I don’t think him having a job in the NFL or him not having a job in the NFL is really a factor in what’s happening right now around the league. Sometimes I get upset about people suggesting that. Okay he gets a job, does that mean all of the sudden we have racial harmony? It doesn’t work that way. I see that as a separate issue.”
Chadiha then argued that Kapernick’s exclusion from the league is in part his choice.
“He’s played a role in him not having a job. It’s not a very popular thing to say but I know he’s spoken to teams going back to 2017. I know that he was given questions he could’ve answered a certain way that would’ve allowed him to get a job. There’s been a lot of discussion about what he really wants whether it be a starter job, to have a certain amount of money…Ultimately what’s disappointing for me as far as how Kaepernick handles himself is he’s never really spoken. He’s never really communicated that much, other than the little workout that turned into a circus a few months back and that’s it.
“At some point I hope he starts talking about what he wants and how he wants things to be.”
Listen to the full interview below.
