In Colin Kaepernick’s fight to get back onto the NFL stage, one of his biggest arguments has been that he wants a starting job or no job at all.
But it appears his terms may be changing, as he revealed this week that he’s willing to take a backup quarterback role if it means he can be back in the league — well, at least until he’s given the chance to compete for a starting job again.
“I know I have to find my way back in,” Kaepernick revealed on the “I Am Athlete” podcast in a discussion with Brandon Marshall, Chad Johnson and Adam “Pacman” Jones. “So, yeah, if I have to come in as a backup, that’s fine. But that’s not where I’m staying. And when I prove that I’m a starter, I want to be able to step on the field as such. I just need that opportunity to walk through the door.”
Kaepernick, now 34, said he has reached out to teams privately for tryouts, with the only team giving him a shot being the Seattle Seahawks.
“No team’s brought me in for a workout,” Kaepernick said. “No team has brought me in for an opportunity. I had the one meeting with Seattle in 2017. And out of that, Pete Carroll said, ‘Hey, he’s a starter; we have a starter.’ And things moved on from there. But they don’t have a starter right now.”
Kaepernick hasn’t played since 2016 when he infamously began kneeling during the national anthem. The former 49er maintains his stance against racial injustice isn’t shared with the NFL and that the narrative he had become a distraction to his teammates was made up by the local press.
“That 2016 season, my last year, my teammates voted me most courageous and inspirational player,” he said. “So, when you’re talking about the people that are in the building, that has never come out that I’ve been a distraction. That’s never come out that I’ve been an issue for the people I’ve played with.”
Only time will tell if Kaepernick’s latest effort to suit up for an NFL game pays off.
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