The NFL’s 2022-23 season is only a week old, and there are already calls to sign Colin Kaepernick, but for ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, the Dallas Cowboys won’t do it because Texas is “too patriotic.”

Of course, Cowboys QB Dak Prescott fractured his right thumb Sunday, an injury that gave rise to renewed calls for Kaepernick to be brought back after six years on the sidelines.

Kaepernick won’t be replacing Prescott, though, as far as the First Take host is concerned.

“You know what, this is a different subject for another day maybe. It will never happen, in my opinion … might want to make that call to Colin Kaepernick,” Smith said during the show’s Monday broadcast. “Might want to find out. He ain’t been around, but he’s a playmaker with his legs who’s available, you gotta take that into consideration.”

Smith went on to claim that Cowboys fans would not take kindly to bringing the infamously anti-American national anthem protester to Dallas.

“But I don’t think it will ever happen, because this is Texas,” Smith said mockingly. “And the state of Texas, you understand what I’m saying, the patriotic individuals that they pride themselves on being, since, you know, the whole Kaepernick situation was hijacked, that narrative was hijacked, to them, it’s that and Terry Jones is not going to let that get in the way of business. But I would think about it. I would say that. But getting back to reality, because I don’t think that’s reality.”

Of course, Smith again pushed the false claim that Kaepernick’s innocent and pure protest against police brutality was “hijacked” by those who want to cast Kaepernick as hatefully un-American.

But in truth, early in his protests, Kaepernick’s claims aligned more with how detractors cast them than those like Smith who have claimed that Kaepernick’s motives were lied about by racists.

For his part, former Cowboys player Michael Irvin waved away the idea of bringing Kaepernick back to the NFL.

“Let’s stop with this Colin Kaepernick stuff. Let’s just stop. Colin Kaepernick’s been out of football for what five years now. Come on, man. Let’s stop all of a sudden thinking we can go resurrect Colin Kaepernick, and he’s going to come and resurrect a football team. I’ll take my chances with Cooper Rush,” Irvin said.

Since he left the NFL at the end of the 2016 season, he’s variously claimed that he is ready to return but alternately accused the NFL of being something akin to slavery for black players.

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