Kaepernick
One interpretation: he protests, therefore he loses his job in the NFL. My interpretation: he's losing his job in the NFL, therefore he protests.
Two years ago, when the Niners went 8-8 under Harbaugh there were numerous reports Kaepernick was isolated in the locker room. Michael Crabtree hated him. He was having serious issues with teammates. This is a guy who was obsessed with his body, working out, instagram, etc. Which was fine -- it was why he was popular initially under the millennial types. The next year, he turns into Martin Luther cornrow, becomes a vegan, loses weight, loses a step, loses muscle, and loses his starting position. And then starts protesting injustice. Others follow suit. You know the rest of the story. He gets a starting gig back, plays with training wheels, pads his stats in games when the Niners are down and goes like 0-7, or 1-6 as a starter. The Niners don't want him back because the gimmick of Kaepernick got figured out 3 years ago by defensive coordinators. No other NFL team wants him either. The SJW types start using him as a symbol of injustice because that is what they do. He, instead, changes agents, and tells teams he won't be protesting any longer because he realizes getting paid millions is better than working a regular 9-5. But NFL teams can't use him because he doesn't fit into NFL schemes. If you roll with Kap, you need to build around his skillset, which is diminished and I'd argue, always a gimmick. So instead of him trying to improve as a QB, he chose to allow himself to get hijacked as a symbol. It's actually a sad story. He's not a bad guy, just shallow, and obviously dealing with identity issues. But this is about him - not about injustice. He could easily go to the Arena League and play if he wanted to play football. It worked for Kurt Warner.
For those who argue it's about the protests - they having nothing to stand on. There are numerous other NFL players who are still protesting. Kaepernick has given up his protests. This is about projecting grievance - nothing more.
1 comment:
Was listening to Simmons podcast with two other sports writers this week and they were falling all over themselves trying to talk about what social good Kap was doing and involved and it read as just such fear of saying the wrong thing, being caught on the wrong side of an issue cause that is literally the worst thing for a media person to be - to be eviscerated for having the wrong opinion. They were making the case that Kap is better than Blake Bortles and thus should be a starter for some team or at least a back up - I don't know enough about football to give a valid argument about that - what I do know if that there is no way in hell some team doesn't take a chance on Kap if they think it would help them win games - this is the most competitive sports league in the world - to win one more game can make a huge difference in the value of a season business wise and you're telling me no, the entire league is in a conspiracy together and racist etc. What a joke. If you can play, you play - its pretty much as simple as that.
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