Colin Kaepernick has gone all-in in recent weeks in his quest to return to the NFL. The social justice activist who hasn’t played pro football since 2016 has been holding workouts with NFL players, making appearances with throwing exercises, and talking about his desire for one more shot in the league.
The 34-year-old quarterback appeared on the “I AM ATHLETE” podcast on Monday and continued to make his push, telling NFL owners “let me come in and compete and show you what I can do” and saying he would be happy to earn his way as a backup.
While there’s been some speculation around certain teams, the odds remain that no NFL franchise will want to bring him into camp. Whether that’s because he’s been out of the game too long or because they don’t want to deal with the section of the fanbase who will be mad is unknown.
Stephen A. Smith, who has been critical of the former Niners signal-caller before, was asked about Kaepernick’s latest comments during Tuesday’s First Take and the ESPN personality didn’t hold back, saying that he found them to be “utter nonsense” and that he is “sick of this.”
.@stephenasmith shares his thoughts on the comments from Colin Kaepernick about his desire to return to the NFL. pic.twitter.com/P5nYw8okR4
— First Take (@FirstTake) April 19, 2022
“How many times do we need to say that before Colin Kaepernick is willing to accept the fact you gotta handle things differently and what do I mean by that? I’m not talking about the kneeling. I’m not talking about the protesting because that’s on behalf of us and there’s a level of graciousness and gratitude we all owe him. Black people, as far as I’m concerned, America, owes this to Colin Kaepernick. But that was from 2016 to 2019.”
While Smith clearly appreciated what Kaepernick has gone through and done, his issue lies with everything that happened between 2016 and now off the field.
“In 2019, after you filed a lawsuit against the National Football League, after you reached a multimillion-dollar settlement, after you made it clear you don’t have any trust for them and they made it clear they have no trust for you, because of pressure from Jay-Z, who is obviously advising the NFL on social justice issues and things of that nature, along with a multitude of people inside and outside of the media and you’re listening to one of them because I spoke to many people on behalf of Colin Kaepernick, the NFL said we’re gonna conduct a workout. And Colin Kaepernick refused to workout because of some waiver issue, some liability issue,” Smith said.
“At the end of the day, what are you saying, Colin Kaepernick, you didn’t trust them? Well, duh! We know you didn’t trust them. They didn’t trust you because they felt like if an individual team, none of whom called you by the way, if an individual team gave you a workout that you would sit up there, if you don’t make the team, they were saying you might sit up there and accuse us of being racist because they didn’t pick you on the team so as a result we can’t trust you either. Both sides don’t trust one another. Who the hell don’t know that?
“And still, you took the position, regardless of Jay-Z’s help, regardless of the media’s help, regardless of public fury against the National Football League knowing everybody was going to be all over them, watching them like a fine-tooth comb, you still didn’t trust anybody. You want to listen to your lady and your Colin Kaepernick crew and you wanted to debunk everybody else, and here you are having a conversation about football.
“My brother, you ain’t played in five years. We don’t know what you can do but we still believe in you. I believe Colin Kaepernick could be on an NFL team right now and help a team despite being gone for five years because I think he’s that gifted. That ain’t the point!”
“The point is coaches, players, and executives all answer to owners of those respective football teams and they don’t want to touch you. And you knew that and the one in, you refused to exploit. I understand your point about not trusting them, hell we don’t trust them. But we were willing to fight for you, you didn’t want to listen to anybody. And now the NFL is saying, ratings are up 10% from the year before. Super Bowl ratings were up 6%. We got some of the best numbers since 2015, that’s without Colin Kaepernick. Why would we invite this trouble? Who didn’t know they were gonna do that? Who didn’t warn Colin Kaepernick they weren’t gonna do that?
“That’s why we told you. Go work out. Show what you can do and let the momentum build to force their hand. But you didn’t wanna play. You didn’t wanna talk. And that’s why you’re still doing interviews instead of throwing touchdowns.”
