Adios, Football

If no one hires Colin Kaepernick, I won't watch professional football this year.

Some readers are now angry at me. Many others may wonder what a Kaepernick is.

Colin Kaepernick is a quarterback. He did some marvelous things as a San Francisco 49er. Then the team committed suicide by getting rid of a great coach, Jim Harbaugh. Kaepernick got injured. He recovered and played fairly well on a terrible team. No one knows whether, on a decent team, he could now revive the greatness he showed during the 'Niners' Super Bowl season.

Last year, Kaepernick (who looks to be of mixed race, and was adopted and raised by a white couple) took a knee during the pre-game national anthem. 

He did so to affirm, “Black Lives Matter.” They do. All lives matter, and we shouldn't need to be reminded of that; but saying it, specifically about black lives, also matters, because our society hasn't always thought so -- and still sometimes seems to find them less significant than white lives. 

No one needs to say “White Lives Matter.” “Blue lives matter” too. Black lifes have often seemed to matter least. Blue lives have always gotten plenty of lip service from politicians but are too easily dismissed; and if you say black lives matter, you should also note that blue lives do. 

Many have said that Kaepernick, making a professional football player's salary, should donate money to nonprofits working to improve things. He does.

After last season, San Francisco parted ways with Kaepernick. Teams with excellent, proven quarterbacks have a good football reason to ignore him. 

But given his skills as a quarterback, the game's key position, at least half the teams in the NFL should be quite interested in hiring him, as starter or backup. This summer teams have hired or retained many QB's far below Kaepernick in ability, accomplishments, and winning probability. 

The reason he's still available is painfully obvious. Even Donald Trump has told the NFL not to hire Kaepernick. One owner admitted that Kaepernick's politics were the problem, while another owner (whose coach, Jim Harbaugh's brother, John, wanted to hire Kaepernick), asked the public to “pray for us” then vetoed the hiring.

Teams say the kneeling “is a distraction.” But coaches from San Francisco say it wasn't a distraction there. A couple of players kneeled with Kaepernick instead of standing for the national anthem. Most players didn't. Coaches confirm that there was no locker room distraction. And Kap has said that if he gets a job this fall he won't be kneeling during the anthem.

I enjoy watching pro football, though less than when I was younger. But it is sort of militaristic, and has been somewhat racist. All teams other than Green Bay are owned by obscenely wealthy individuals or by corporations. I don't agree with all the league's policies. Yet I've kept watching.

In sports, athletes' skills and competitive drive should matter most. Unless a player's laziness, undependability, or selfishness impacts the team's spirit and cohesion, put the best on the field. Whatever color or religion or nationiality they are. Whatever their beliefs. Particularly when the NFL has a history of ignoring wife-beating and drunken driving and battery offenses when committed by successful or promising players. If punishing a freethinker or thoughtful dissenter is more important than playing the best football you can, count me out. 

I know I'm pretty insignificant. I know the NFL ain't gonna miss one old guy in southern New Mexico with his back steadfastly turned to the TV Sunday mornings. But it's my turn to take a knee.

                                               -30-

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 6 August 2017, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website.  A spoken version will air periodically during the week on KRWG Radio (and on KTAL-LP, 101.5 FM.]

[The last few days have brought additional copy on Kaepernick, including a piece on the Baltimore debacle and a job opportunity Kap still might get.

After I wrote the column, NBCA Bay Area publichsed Report: Multiple NFL Owners Have Blocked Their Team Signing Kap  From that article:

"Colin Kaepernick is widely considered to be worthy of an NFL contract, but the former 49ers quarterback and social activist is still unemployed.

"With Joe Flacco injured, the Baltimore Ravens are in need of a quarterback. But they won't sign Kaepernick, and it's not a football decision.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh and general manager Ozzie Newsome would like to sign Kaepernick, "but have met resistance from owner Steve Bisciotti," according to Dianna Russini, who also reports that this is not the first time that an NFL team has wanted to add Kaepernick only to be blocked by the owner.

"It's the first official report of the league black-balling Kapernick after he protested the National Anthem last year in San Francisco.

"Instead of following the wishes of the team's head coach and GM, the Ravens opted instead for former arena quarterback David Olson, whom they released after just three days. The Ravens then signed Josh Woodrum, who went undrafted out of Liberty in 2016.

"Behind Flacco, Baltimore has quarterback Ryan Mallet -- who has struggled early in training camp -- Woodrum and Dustin Vaughan on their roster."

Richard Sherman

Seattle Seahawks' wide-receiver Malcolm Baldwin:

"My original position was I thought that the situation last year with him taking a knee didn't have anything to do with it," Baldwin said. "After viewing what's going on, I've got to take that back. I definitely think that the league, the owners are trying to send a message of, 'Stay in between the lines.' It's frustrating because you want to have guys who are willing to speak out about things that they believe in, whether you agree with it or not. But I think that's definitely playing a role now moreso than I thought it was going to."

The Seahawks remain the only team that even brought Kaepernick in for a free-agent visit, but the team elected not to sign him.

Baldwin said Kaepernick's play is worthy of a job in the NFL.

"If you take a step back and you look at the overall picture, there's a lot of teams in this league that could use a quarterback of Colin Kaepernick's ability," Baldwin said. "And why he doesn't have a job, it's very telling to me. He's a very capable player. There's a lot of teams out there that need quarterbacks -- whether they're a starting quarterback or a backup-caliber quarterback. The fact that he hasn't been brought into camp yet is questionable."

That sure didn't sit well with some law-enforcement officers I know; and while there's more than a grain of historical truth to the spirit of that tweet, it's probably not helpful in trying to solve the problem.  It could help inflame some dangerous minds; but then again it could help someone think about how things look from the perspective of some black folks.   Whether you agree or disagree with Kaepernick, though, in my mind ill-judged tweets shouldn't make him unemployable.  After all, it's not as if he were looking for a job as U.S. President!

You can read Whitlock on Kaepernick at any of the Internet sites for which links are listed here. ]

[note added 10August:]  My wife says NPR's football commentator said much the same as I've said here; and a late-July pice by Jarrett Bell of USA Today notes that Dan Orlovsky had become the 24th QB, mostly backups, signed by an NFL team this offseason.   As he notes, Kaepernick quarterbacked a team to a Super Bowl, while Orlovsky was a QB on the Detroit Lions the year they went 0-16.  He notes too that last year, on that lousy San Francisco team, Kaepernick had 90.7 rating as a passer and a 16 to 4 TD to touchdown to interception ratio.  The 90.7 is nothing stellar; but on a poor team, which means he's not getting the best pass protection or receivers with the surest hands, it's not bad, not is the touchdown to interception ratio.  Other mediocre QB's signed this offseason include Ryan Fitzpatrick (69.6 rating, lowest in the league, on the Jest last year), Blaine Gabbert (whom the 49ers benched last season to play Kaepernick), and Austin Davis, whose such a nonentity as QB that I don't even remember who the hell he is!]