Former ESPN host and current writer for the Atlantic, Jemele Hill, reacted angrily in defense of Colin Kaepernick when news surfaced that exiled former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown was to get a workout with the New Orleans Saints.
As Breitbart Sports reported on Friday, multiple corroborated sources report that Brown is in New Orleans for the tryout, as the Saints await word from the league on the status of the former Patriot’s investigation. Hill, took the opportunity to point that Brown’s audition with the Saints lends credence to the idea that the workout the league organized for Kaepernick last month was a “sham and a disgrace.”
While true that NFL teams are generally more interested when they contact you, as opposed to the league organizing a tryout for you, Kaepernick’s league organized workout was still something he should have taken seriously. Regardless, it’s highly doubtful that the Saints view Antonio Brown’s behavioral issues (allegations of rape and sexual misconduct coupled with erratic and unpredictable behavior) as “correctable.”
Instead, the Saints are likely and shrewdly calculating that by signing Brown with only the short postseason remaining, they can add tremendous offensive firepower while minimizing the troubled wide receiver’s ability to get in more trouble.
The other difference, obviously, is that Antonio Brown is an infinitely more gifted football player than Colin Kaepernick. When Brown is healthy and on the field, he is the best wide receiver in football. When Kaepernick was last on the field – three years ago – he was a middling NFL quarterback whose dedication and passion about football was being openly questioned by many.
These are not the same things.
If Colin Kaepernick was the best player at his position, as Antonio Brown is at his, he never would have needed to file a collusion grievance against the league because he would have had a job, protests or no protests.
In the eyes of NFL teams, Antonio Brown is simply a much better risk than Kaepernick, plain and simple.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn