Cory's Corner: Colin Kaepernick's NFL career is over

It’s time to forget about Colin Kaepernick.

He may still have quality snaps left, but his NFL life is over.

And no, it’s not because NFL owners are racist or prejudiced. It’s because teams don’t need a backup quarterback to make waves. Backup quarterbacks are meant to be seen and not heard — and it’s better if you don’t see a backup quarterback at all.

Kaepernick was the NFL’s lightning rod last year when he opted to not stand during the national anthem. The response was very polarizing and Kaepernick instantly became the voice of reason for Black America, with white policemen being his biggest targets.

And just when you thought Kaepernick couldn’t dip any lower, he compared today’s modern cops to the slave patrol. There are plenty of rogue cops in America, but none of them are even in the same zip code as the slave patrol (Not to mention that it's historically inaccurate).

Should Kaepernick be on a team? Sure. He’s flat-out better than Austin Davis. But what did Kaepernick tell Seattle? Did he actually tell them he needs a shot to start? Because if so, Pete Carroll had no time for that.

Kaepernick is a vegan and that’s the reason many teams are now giving as to why he’s still unemployed. Get out of here! Is he a little bit thinner? Sure. But that’s pretty flimsy that his injury cloud would become so murky just because of being a vegan.

It’s hard to fathom that Kaepernick doesn't understand why he’s not in the league. Jim Harbaugh was his former coach at San Francisco and right before he left for Michigan he questioned his wok ethic.

And now Kaepernick is left pondering what might have been. I happen to agree with what he said. I don’t think policemen should be allowed to wreak havoc and fear across our cities. The police are meant to protect and serve — not to profile and threaten.

But what Kaepernick still has to realize is that as a backup quarterback, he is not the mouthpiece of the team. He is allowed to carry a mouthpiece but he isn’t allowed to be an opinion maker when he hasn’t earned that right.

Kaepernick may very well play in the NFL again but I just don’t see it. There’s too much to lose and not enough to gain by having him start. Of course, the counter argument would be remembering how he torched the Packers to the tune of 181 yards rushing and two touchdowns and 263 yards passing in the 2012 NFC Divisional Playoff.

The only way Kaepernick is still employed in the NFL is if he understands time and place. There is a place and time for political statements. Making such a statement when you don’t even play, really hurts your credibility and will likely turn your teammates off. Have a referendum on police brutality away from the locker room. Speak with actions, not with empty words that make him seem obtuse.

Colin Kaepernick has been a case study in how not to handle tough times. And he has no one to blame but himself.

 

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Cory Jennerjohn is a graduate from UW-Oshkosh and has been in sports media for over 15 years. He was a co-host on "Clubhouse Live" and has also done various radio and TV work as well. He has written for newspapers, magazines and websites. He currently is a columnist for CHTV and also does various podcasts. He recently earned his Masters degree from the University of Iowa. He can be found on Twitter: @Coryjennerjohn

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Comments (48)

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Lphill's picture

June 27, 2017 at 06:36 am

Bye A hole

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SpudRapids's picture

June 27, 2017 at 11:55 am

“I will donate $1 million plus all the proceeds of my jersey sales from the 2016 season to organizations working in oppressed communities — $100,000 a month for 10 months,”

Sounds like a real A hole to me

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RCPackerFan's picture

June 27, 2017 at 06:52 am

Kaepernick was definitely a lighting rod.

From a guy who just a few years ago nearly led his team to a super bowl victory to now is essentially out of the league is crazy.

The question I'd like Kaepernick to answer is if he knew he would be out of a job now, would he have taken a knee last year?

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SpudRapids's picture

June 27, 2017 at 11:53 am

I do think he would of have taken a knee regardless... Look at how much of his own money he has donated.

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Mark Richards's picture

June 27, 2017 at 07:31 am

You missed one of the main reasons he is not signed yet and that is he is just not that good. A quarterback that can't rest in the pocket and throw the ball is not NFL material. Just look at Tim Tebow.

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Mark Richards's picture

June 27, 2017 at 07:31 am

You missed one of the main reasons he is not signed yet and that is he is just not that good. A quarterback that can't rest in the pocket and throw the ball is not NFL material. Just look at Tim Tebow.

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Thegreatreynoldo's picture

June 27, 2017 at 07:51 am

This is very debatable. His stats certainly look like low starter good back up material to me. I acknowledge that I haven't watched him play in a long time, so I have no eyeball test.

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Handsback's picture

June 27, 2017 at 07:35 am

PFT has been trying to resurrect his career by asking, and even dealing out mild threats of him being blackballed by the owners. Here's my thoughts for what they are worth....Kaepernick was a pretty fair DEVELOPMENTAL QB that was surrounded by a very good team. When they went to the SB, it wasn't because of him (exception being the Green Bay game) but that team had a strong defense and a good running game. The difference between Kaepernick and Wilson is Wilson continued to get better, Kap didn't. He maxed out and what you see is what you're going to get. He's not going to become a better QB. If his work ethic is lousy, why even have him on your team? Coaches have to look at tape and decide if that is what they want for a 2nd string QB.

So there you have MHO for what it's worth. Politics aside, is his attitude and skill set what you want on your team?

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Bearmeat's picture

June 27, 2017 at 07:54 am

That's not entirely true. Kap was electric in the Super Bowl. He almost singlehandedly brought them back into that game against the Ravens. At his best, Kap was a HWS QB to be feared. Never a pocket passer, and perhaps he didn't have the mind or work ethic to become one. If so, he wasn't the first and won't be the last of that genus of QB. RG3, Tebow and Vick come to mind. They were supernovas - stars that didn't last long once people figured out to play bracket coverage and spy them. Not to rush.

I think the thing with Kap is that his skills have declined. He's significantly smaller and significantly slower than he was in 12/13. He's been injured somewhat frequently, including an injury to his throwing shoulder. And he has mentioned that it's hard to get enough protein to fuel a pro athletes needs on a vegan diet. Throw in that he was never known for reading defenses quickly, not for his touch and accuracy, and any physical decline becomes more prominent.

Yes, he's better than probably 5 or so starting QBs right now. But just like Tebow (albeit he is of the opposite political persuasion), the distraction became not worth it. Then when you add in that many, perhaps most, NFL fans are highly patriotic and conservative (just go read the comments on a PFT story that reads liberal for proof).... And you've got an unemployed QB. It's perhaps not fair, nor just. But life isn't fair or just.

That said, I think Kap is a schmuck - and I've thought that for years - well before he started his disrespectful garbage last year, but I reserved the right to change my mind. Until the pig socks. That was the nail in the coffin for me. You want to protest, fine. MLK protested. But do it respectfully. You can't force societal change unless you are a monarch - and even then, you can't change people's beliefs, you can only force them to comply.

Doing what Kap did in the way that he did it was selfish, stupid and unnecessarily combative.

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Bert's picture

June 27, 2017 at 08:11 am

Bottom line is that the NFL is a business and Kap just isn't good for business. If I made a pain in the butt out of myself at work and became a liability I would be out of work too. Business is business. If he really wanted to stay in the NFL Kap and his advisor (Harry Edwards) should've thought about that last year.

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SpudRapids's picture

June 27, 2017 at 11:57 am

If your thought process were true then Josh Gordon and players like him that repeatedly mess up wouldn't continue to get second chances

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Bert's picture

June 27, 2017 at 01:37 pm

Not really. You may be confusing the morality of the issue with the business impact. Guys like Josh Gordon, Letroy Guion etc. can continue to screw up and will also continue to find work because they aren't controversial and the fans and sponsors could really care less about DUIs, drug offenses, assaults etc. Kap just hit the wrong button with his social stance. I'm not saying it's right or wrong I'm just saying that what Josh Gordon does doesn't really affect the team's bottom line while Kap may turn off fans and sponsors. Just the way it is.

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tm_inter's picture

June 27, 2017 at 08:30 am

Not interested in stories about Kaepernick. More interested in Packers' players - any Packer will do. Thanks.

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Bigb's picture

June 27, 2017 at 08:31 am

Yeah, how dare he dip so low as to become the voice of reason for black America.

there are more people in jail in this country than anywhere in the world. is that a coincidence, is it because americans are uniquely bad? has it made this country uniquely safe?

you should consider the perspective of the black america to whom you have appointed a 'voice of reason' before casually dismissing the majority of that population, who broadly agree with 'the voice of reason' critique of America.

I'm not sure this column came out as intended, and there are a lot of good arguments against Kaep. But this is not one of them.

this is a really terrible take.

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ThxJackVainisi's picture

June 27, 2017 at 09:15 am

Bigb: "… there are a lot of good arguments against Kaep. But this is not one of them."
Yes it is. No matter how you or NFL owners, GMs, and HCs feel about the issue, it is reasonable for teams to determine Kaepernick's talent isn't worth the distraction he brings to the locker room. But the TKstinator may be right: Some team may become desperate and decide he is worth the distraction. Either way it is a business decision and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the issue.

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Bigb's picture

June 27, 2017 at 10:20 am

tl;dr the 4th and fifth paragraphs of this essay are more than borderline racist, as written
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i mean, i personally would not sign him cuz he's a shit quarterback. BUT if i was not a packers fan and had a mid range talent mobile qb, why not take him as a backup? anyways, i dont want to defend his play too much.

The thing about the "distraction" meme is that most NFL players, past and present, say its b.s.

there may be a fan backlash amongst conservatives, but what kind of nfl team will actually lose games cuz the team was asked a cumulative total of 100 questions that were not about football? its a marketing issue, not a football one.

My narrower point, though, is that Kaep is not a bad person for protesting a system of incarceration that was literally and indisputably built to be racist. I love america, but thats just true -- if i must leave an example of that, look at the criminal sentencing differences between cocaine and the crack version of it.

anyways, i def. respect your reply regardless of my disagreeing.

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Spock's picture

June 27, 2017 at 08:48 am

per Cory's article: "questioned his wok ethic". So, I'm guessing his ability to stir-fry his veggies isn't helping?
LOL

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J0hn Denver's Gavel's picture

June 27, 2017 at 09:45 am

No meat on mine, pwheez

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TKWorldWide's picture

June 27, 2017 at 08:53 am

Let's see what happens when the QB injuries start rolling in around the league.

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kag715's picture

June 27, 2017 at 10:22 am

It says a lot about the psyche of your average American that the idea of "stop getting away with killing Black people" is suddenly perceived as a politically divisive and controversial statement.

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TarynsEyes's picture

June 27, 2017 at 12:11 pm

I hope that message is being offered loudly and clearly in the black communities of Chicago and like cities, since the vast slaughtering of blacks is being done by blacks and not the police or whites as spouted.
I know, I know. ...I'm a racist for stating truth while acknowledging that incidents of true racial killings occur but not to the level that would erase the racist label bestowed on me.

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ThxJackVainisi's picture

June 27, 2017 at 02:18 pm

I agree Tarynfor12. While racism certainly exists, in my opinion concentrating so much on "victim-hood" does minority communities more harm than good. But that's a discussion for a different forum.

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kag715's picture

June 27, 2017 at 04:20 pm

Aaaaand thank you for bringing the most predictable response to the discussion! Tell me, Taryn, do Black people who kill each other get away with it more often than not (I take it you missed that very important aspect of my comment)? Are Black people who kill each other given the trust (and taxpayer money) of the public to protect and serve their communities? Do Black people who kill each other work in concert with and curry favor with District Attorney's offices so that they almost always get the benefit of the doubt when they carry out extrajudicial killings? Answer me all of that before you start going on about using Black people killing each other to deflect from the criminal justice system being disproportionately harsh towards Black people. (Spoiler alert: White people kill each other at a similarly high rate but no one complains about that when we talk about combating foreign terrorism.)

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TarynsEyes's picture

June 27, 2017 at 05:03 pm

Question...yes.
Question2....yes
Question3....yes

Now tell me which city in America has white people killing white people at the same rate and numbers of Chicago and alike.
Let's not begin with terrorism is what Chicago blacks are doing to each other.

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kag715's picture

June 27, 2017 at 08:27 pm

Since you care so much about what's happening in Chicago and the like, what are YOU doing to help reduce crime in those areas? Are you mentoring kids and providing after-school activities to keep them off the streets? Are you lobbying to bring businesses and jobs into those areas so that they don't have to resort to illegal means of making money? Wait, what's that? Oh, that's right, you're not because you really don't care; you only want to bring it up to deflect from my (and Colin's) main point, even though many Black people care about both violence in these cities and police misconduct. (Speaking of Colin, he has already done more for youth in Chicago and other cities than you could ever care to do with your pathetic concern trolling.)

That aside, you're still missing my point. Since you seem to be a bit on the slow side, let me spell it out for you:

If I, a Black otherwise-law-abiding citizen, killed another Black person who posed no immediate threat to me, and I claimed that "I feared for my life" or "he looked like he was reaching for a gun" (yet turns out he was actually reaching for a cell phone), or whatever BS justification that police always use, do you really, honestly think that a jury of my peers would take me at my word and acquit me of all charges? Last time I checked, I wouldn't have some all-powerful union backing me and allowing me the best legal defense possible that many of these police officers have, nor will it be my fellow Black civilians being tasked with the investigation of the homicide in this hypothetical situation.

So I ask again. Given all of that, do you really think that I would be given the benefit of the doubt in a criminal trial and have a judge or jury find me not guilty of fatally shooting someone who posed no threat on my life?

If your answers to those questions as well as the questions in my first reply to you really are "yes" (although it's very suspicious that you merely said "yes" without any explanation, especially considering that all evidence points to the contrary) and that you're not simply trolling me, this conversation is over and either you have zero grasp on reading comprehension, or you're willfully being dense. If you really are trolling, congratulations, you got me to waste five paragraphs on you, but this conversation is still over.

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4EVER's picture

June 28, 2017 at 11:34 am

Snowflake

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vj_ostrowski's picture

June 29, 2017 at 01:28 pm

Ah, "snowflake" - how original.

You people are sheep.

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4EVER's picture

July 01, 2017 at 12:19 pm

Says the lamb...ah, seems we have another snowflake comment.

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NMPF's picture

June 27, 2017 at 10:35 am

Who cares about a below average QB? 72 td passes/30 int over his career. Much ado about nada. Stick to Packer related articles. Trolling is beneath Cheesehead TV's respectability.

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TarynsEyes's picture

June 27, 2017 at 10:57 am

If Kaepernick is being discriminated against for his taking a knee and not his play, why than are the players who supported him not taking a knee and not playing in support that it isn't about his play.
Fact is, Kaepernick is only as good as how great his team was and an average team allowed him to prove how narrow his ability actually was/is today.
Let's remember, the proof of this not being about the taking a knee,is his play decreased more and more with the loss of Harbaugh and players that made him an arm kissing egotist of false fame.
Will he get another chance, sure, look how many Vick got, but the more he cries foul, the longer it may take to offer it.

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PatrickGB's picture

June 27, 2017 at 11:03 am

A mixed race man raised by white parents as the voice for "Black America"! I think not. But I guess he thinks he is. My guess is that he is an insecure young man searching for an identity. I believe in his freedom of speech. I wish him well.
I also believe that he could still be a good developmental QB. He still has good HWS and could still play well if given a chance in the right system.

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rajahking's picture

June 27, 2017 at 11:38 am

Colin Kaepernick is clearly being punished for his courage to speak out against racism and hypocrisy. I applaud him for standing up for what he believes, and making direct statements about police brutality and the racism of the NFL.

While my first feeling toward him was total frustration when ran all over us in the playoffs, he's now my one of my favorite non-Packers players. He transcends sports.

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NMPF's picture

June 27, 2017 at 12:44 pm

LMFAO

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rajahking's picture

June 27, 2017 at 11:38 am

Colin Kaepernick is clearly being punished for his courage to speak out against racism and hypocrisy. I applaud him for standing up for what he believes, and making direct statements about police brutality and the racism of the NFL.

While my first feeling toward him was total frustration when ran all over us in the playoffs, he's now my one of my favorite non-Packers players. He transcends sports.

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TarynsEyes's picture

June 27, 2017 at 11:45 am

One needs to be careful of their transendation, as one may find that staircase crumbling with each ascending step into...nothing and nowhere.

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4zone's picture

June 27, 2017 at 12:43 pm

An employer doesn't pay an employee to come to work and spend his time working on his own projects. If he wants to do it on his own time, away from his boss's place of business, fine. But when you are on your employer's clock, you owe him your undivided attention doing what he is paying you to do.

If CK wants to protest, there are myriads of ways to do that outside of his workplace. It would have been significantly more effective by doing so in a respectful manner. Instead, he is simply getting the same lack of respect from the NFL that he showed them.

This has nothing to do with my views on the issue of police violence. I believe there is too much that goes unpunished. But to paint any group with a single brush stroke is detestable. There are far more exceptional people in law enforcement than there are bad and they risk their lives every single day they put on the uniform. For that, we all owe them a huge debt.

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OhioPackerFan's picture

June 27, 2017 at 01:52 pm

Went vegan without any input from the team and lost muscle mass.

Pig-cop socks worn at work tell the story.

Decided on his own it was OK if the 49ers talked about social injustice the way CK framed it rather than talk about football all year.

Decided to insult the flag and the anthem based on his interpretation of what was OK to protest during work.

Would any employee at any position at any company keep his job based if he acted this way?

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Lphill's picture

June 27, 2017 at 04:13 pm

Spud Rapids- he is an A hole , he disrespected the flag , country , military and the Police . I am retired NYPD I have the right to my opinion as much as you , he can do damage control after the fact but he is still an A hole .

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wolfie's picture

June 27, 2017 at 04:51 pm

A local Packer site now turning political? A lot of us come to sites like this to forget about ALL the political crap! I stop spending my money at a company when they become political. I stop going to movies when the actors spew their opinions. Keep it up and I'm sure you will see about half your readers going bye-bye.

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Bert's picture

June 27, 2017 at 05:14 pm

It's a shame the Packer defense did everything in their power to turn this goof from Nevada U into something relevant. We aided and abetted this overstuffed showboat and helped him become a national figure. Geez. C'mon Dom!!!

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Packer_Fan's picture

June 27, 2017 at 05:20 pm

Ignore him, he may go away.

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Dzehren's picture

June 27, 2017 at 09:15 pm

Kap was a product of Jim Harbaugh period.

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Tundraboy's picture

June 28, 2017 at 09:41 am

Is it trying camp time yet?

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Arthur Jackson's picture

June 28, 2017 at 01:01 pm

I hope he doesn't get picked up this year. Next year the Packers will be able to unload Hundley for a pick or two and then Kaepernick will be waiting. He'll be a great QB to have behind Rodgers in case of injury. He already has the 17th best all-time in passer-rating so imagine what a couple of years watching Rodgers combined with the Packers' QB school will do for him.

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Bert's picture

June 28, 2017 at 01:20 pm

Great idea. He can run up to Madison and find something to protest in his spare time.

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Arthur Jackson's picture

June 29, 2017 at 10:27 am

Do whatever hell he wants. Who cares other than some thin-skinned righties.

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jyros's picture

June 29, 2017 at 10:14 am

It's clear his head's more into playing politics than it is on playing football. Colin K. should commit himself fully to the field of politics.

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Houndog's picture

June 30, 2017 at 07:25 pm

jyros,
"Colin K. should commit himself"
How about we just leave it at that?

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