By: Colin Gilmartin
Amidst the turmoil that was my Monday morning, thanks to my 59 year old uncle who somehow trampled my fantasy football team this weekend by 70 plus points without knowing he was playing me, I tuned into the God awful channel that is ESPN to witness the tangible football plays that led to my historic demise this past Sunday. My (hopefully) championship-worthy team was brought to a solid record of 4-2. After the highlights, ESPN predictably goes right to the social issues and “injustices” that surround the NFL during their program. “First Take” with Max Kellerman and Stephen A. Smith, blasphemous as ever, delves right into the NFL’s notorious poster boy, Colin Kaepernick. Kap and his newly assembled legal team have now filed a grievance against the NFL and its owners claiming that there is a secret plot of collusion against Colin and his beliefs, disallowing him from continuing his quarterback career in the NFL. From the kneeling campaign he’s forefronted and other mishaps, Kaepernick has burned many potential bridges that would have secured him a roster spot on an NFL team.
Firstly, the Miami Dolphins, with their current disaster of a QB situation, were in such dire need of a body running their offense that they brought in the apathetic enigma that is Jay Cutler. Cutler, before being brought into Miami, was on schedule to take up a much more relaxing announcer position with a major TV network to be commentating football, not playing. What does that say to you, Colin? Maybe your stance that America is racist as a whole, and subsequently refusing to stand for the National Anthem of a country that has given you and many other minority players an opportunity to play a sport for millions of dollars despite being biracial, is somewhat flawed. Maybe you yourself is what’s standing in your way of playing professional football again. The Dolphins passed over Kaepernick for two glaring reasons, which Kap seems blissfully unaware of. First off, if Kap were to be signed to the ‘phins, immediately there would be a rift in the fanbase because of the kneelings, causing many fans to switch allegiances to the Bucs (if you like crab legs) or to possibly stop watching football entirely. Now I know some people believe Kap’s argument is well-founded; I don’t know these people personally and don’t care to, but they are out there. I firmly believe that the support of these people isn’t enough to justify the signing by the Dolphins, considering the supporters of Kaepernick are the minority.
Miami also has a huge Cuban population, and Kap has pissed them off as well! He’s been spotted sporting a Fidel Castro T-shirt during a press conference while he was still a part of the 49ers organization. Castro’s legacy, one of the most oppressive and infamous in the past century, somehow gives Kap solace. He believes “great minds think alike” according to the the act of wearing this T-shirt. I don’t see how the former Cubans that have weathered the Castro dictatorship could be on the same wavelength as him, let alone be fans of the same Dolphins organization. Yet, Colin thinks that it is the team owners that are being unreasonable.
The second Kap mishap is that nobody has ever successfully compared their potential boss and a beloved former member of an organization to a master and slave dynamic and secured the potential job. Kaepernick’s girlfriend, who’s assumed the role of Harley Quinn to Kaepernick’s Joker-esque sensational narrative, compared the Baltimore Ravens’ owner Steve Bisciotti and Hall of Fame middle linebacker and long-cherished Raven Ray Lewis to Leonardo Dicaprio and Samuel L. Jackson in the movie Django Unchained. Harley – I mean Nessa – seems to think it’s accurate to portray Lewis as the self-loathing slave, knowing where his bread is buttered and blindly following the racist and vicious master. This is all while Kap is in contract talks with the Ravens! Even better, Ray Lewis was for signing Kaepernick, wanting him as a safe backup to the “elite” Joe Flacco, who eerily could be the athlete doppleganger of the Scarecrow from Batman Begins (please google this, I guarantee you’re gonna like the comparison). It takes a certain kind of idiot to vaporize the chance of a multi-million dollar deal for their significant other, even if it’s for a cause that these people hold true to their hearts (some [wo]men just want to watch the world burn, Master Bruce). For a professional athlete already skating on super thin ice, Kap should know better. I don’t think a backwards political stance is worth missing out on millions, but what do I know? I’m just a distraught fan of the NFL who likes money.
NFL owners understand that taking on Kaepernick in this political climate would mean a definite drop in profits solely because of the bad taste he’s left in the mouths of too many fans and members of the NFL. Professional sports leagues are businesses and at the end of the day, it’s about profits. Take the NBA’s Isaiah Thomas trade. The guy played for the Celtics right after his sister passed away, just to be traded this past offseason. If a business doesn’t want to lose profits unnecessarily due to signing a player swimming in controversy, how can someone claim that doing so is a secret plot against him? It’s rather obvious that a business wants to take in as much revenue as possible at the expense of a player not entirely deserving of a roster spot. Newsflash: Kap opted out of his own contract when it came time to renegotiate his deal with San Francisco. His skill doesn’t even live up to the hype; Alex Smith is now a franchise quarterback and he was benched for Colin, making the NFL general managers feel that the Kaepernick train has left the station for good. This long standing story of Kaepernick against the NFL is exhausting at this point. Luckily, Colin has hammered the last figurative nail into his coffin with this official claim of collusion, making it virtually impossible for him to be signed by an NFL team now.
Newsflash: Kap opted out of his own contract when it came time to renegotiate his deal with San Francisco. His skill doesn’t even live up to the hype. Alex Smith is now a franchise quarterback and he was benched for Colin, making the NFL general managers feel that the Kaepernick train has left the station for good. This long standing story of Kaepernick against the NFL is exhausting at this point. Luckily, Colin has hammered the last figurative nail into his coffin with this official claim of collusion, making it virtually impossible for him to be signed by an NFL team now.