Colin Kaepernick is back in the news after Aaron Rodgers’ season-ending injury left the New York Jets without a starting quarterback for the rest of the season. With questions swirling around current quarterback Zach Wilson and his ability to take the team to the playoffs, Kaepernick and his camp believe that they have found a way back into the NFL.
Kaepernick’s friend, rapper J Cole, released the two-page letter that the former qb sent to teams on his Instagram page, where he asked that the New York Jets offer a spot on the practice squad for the former 49ers quarterback, who has since focused on his lucrative career as a social justice warrior.
Kaepernick approaches this letter with a hat in hand, not asking for the starting ob but put asking for a role on the practice squad. He wrote, “However, I know that there are currently depth issues at the position, and I’ve heard that the back-up spot is likely to be filled by a veteran Quarterback. As much as I would love the opportunity to fill that spot, I’m writing you in hopes that you can imagine a much different approach involving me; I would be honored and extremely grateful for the opportunity to come in and lead the practice squad. I would do this with the sole mission of getting your defense ready each week. If I were able to fill this role for the team, I believe this allows for multiple things.”
He also made sure to point out that he is ready, and has remained ready since his last NFL game, to play in the best football league in the world. He concluded, “As a final point, I would like to add this. Unlike many of the veteran QB’s that have been named in the media, I’ve never retired or stopped training. My training schedule has remained the same for 6 years; Monday through Friday, 5am-8am training on the field and in the weight room. I’ve kept this training schedule without failure for the past 6 years, in hopes that an opportunity will present itself. I say this to give you some perspective on where I’m at physically.”
Kaepernick listed some of his former coaches as references, including Chip Kelly, Jim Harbaugh, John Harbaugh, and Mark Davis. If those big names are willing to back Kaepernick’s claims, he may have a chance to win the role of practice squad quarterback for the Jets.
After his antics surrounding kneeling for the national anthem, it is hard for any team to bring Colin aboard without having serious concern for the locker room chemistry taking a major hit. He comes into any organization with big opinions and a huge media following that is sure to cause distractions.
For the Jets, it is imperative to weigh the risk of those distractions against the possible benefit of having Kaepernick on the practice squad.
He would surely be an exceptional talent for such a role on the field, but his antics off of it will likely prove to bring too much risk to the table for a player that doesn’t even suit up on Sundays.
Featured image: Sanders175, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped)
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