We are now at the point where every time a backup quarterback not named Colin Kaepernick gets signed, he is going to be made to made to apologize for not being a backup quarterback named Colin Kaepernick.
Such is the case with the Tennessee Titans recent signing of backup Brandon Weeden.
For instance, just take a glimpse at the opening sentences of Pro Football Talk’s article about Weeden’s hire: “Plenty of people thought Colin Kaepernick was more qualified to play quarterback for the Titans than Brandon Weeden. And even Weeden himself thinks Kaepernick ought to be playing somewhere.”
Seriously? That’s how you begin a story about a guy getting a job in the NFL?
That’s so weird because when Michael Sam, who was not good enough to play in the NFL and a far worse player than Weeden, was literally placed on Dallas’ practice squad by the league for no other reason than to spare the NFL a media skewering for not finding a home for the league’s first openly gay player. I don’t recall Pro Football Talk, or any other mainstream sports media outlet, leading off stories by saying that Sam’s signing was a joke because there were other, more talented people out there.
Though, of course, Michael Sam advances the sports media’s agenda and Brandon Weeden does not. Which explains the differences in how the stories are covered.
The media also never asked Sam to sing the praises of other players more qualified than him. Yet, that appears to be exactly what the sports media did to Brandon Weeden. According to the Jason Wold of the Tennessean, Weeden said of Kaepernick, “He’s had a heck of a career. He played in a Super Bowl. Obviously, he’s done a lot of really good things. I think us as players, we all kind of firmly believe that he’s a good enough player to play in this league.
“Me, myself, I feel like I have the ability to play in this league as well. I’ve never really lost that confidence. I don’t point fingers, if things have gone my way, things haven’t gone my way. But I continue to keep doing the same thing every day. I kind of worry about me and kind of go from there.”
Credit to Weeden for announcing that he too, is a qualified quarterback in this league. Though, one can almost hear the collective groan and eye-rolling from the assembled press when he said that. Yet, why should he have ever been asked questions about Kaepernick in the first place?
Here’s the thing, put aside for a minute the fact that bringing Kaepernick on as a backup is literally insane, since no coach in his right mind would sign a backup who is going to be a distraction. In addition, forget that the protest movement Kaepernick spawned is literally destroying the NFL, making the idea of signing Kaepernick a de facto suicide pact.
But ask yourselves this question: does anyone know what kind of shape Colin Kaepernick is in right now?
We’re a month into the season, Kaepernick was accused by his own team of not being serious about football on when he was on the roster. If he didn’t take the game seriously then, how do we know that he’s ready to play now?
The answer is we don’t, yet that won’t stop the media from throwing his name into the hat for every job, because the Kaepernick story has nothing to do with facts, it has to do with politics. And the sports media’s reporting on the Kaepernick story, and every backup not named Kaepernick, has nothing to do with sports.
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