Baltimore Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh believes that Colin Kaepernick will play in the NFL again, despite the distraction of his past anthem protests. And, he doesn’t think too highly of those who believe that Kaepernick’s protests are what’s preventing him from getting signed.
According to the Washington Times, as to whether or not Kaepernick will eventually get signed by a team, Harbaugh said, “He’s too good a player. I mean, he’s got to prove himself as a player. Colin knows that, he’d be the first to tell you that. You know, when you’re the quarterback and you don’t win, you’re going to have to answer for that. But he’ll get a chance again. Someone’s going to sign him and he’ll play in this league probably for a long time.”
Harbaugh used stronger terms when addressing rumors that Kaepernick remains unsigned because the league is “blackballing” him. Harbaugh said, “I would never use just a generic, stupid term like that to describe a more complicated type of situation. I just think it’s too easy. It’s intellectually lazy. To me, I think that it’s more nuanced. And I do think that people are, yeah, I absolutely think he’s going to get signed. I think he’ll probably be starting somewhere next year.”
Kaepernick will eventually get signed by someone because there just aren’t enough good quarterbacks in football. Though, it does seem contradictory for Harbaugh to simultaneously say that he believes Kaepernick, “too good a player” to not get signed, while at the same time saying he needs to “prove himself as a player.”
If it’s obvious that he’s good enough, then why must he prove himself?
To the point about the intellectual laziness of people who believe the league has “blackballed” Kaepernick, one could ask Harbaugh, “Why did Kaepernick end his protest?”
Clearly, at some point, someone communicated to Kaepernick that his protest had rubbed some league front offices the wrong way. Otherwise, why end the protest he claims to care so much about? So, while no one should say that Kaepernick’s protest is the only reason for why he remains unsigned, by the same token, no one should ever say those protests have nothing to do Kaepernick’s current unemployment.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn
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