With the Hall of Fame game taking place in Canton, Ohio on Thursday, the NFL’s preseason has started, which means the regular season is just around the corner. Yet while we are just weeks away from the NFL regular season kicking off, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick remains unsigned.
Kaepernick led the Niners to Super Bowl XLVII in 2013 but his career has trended downwards since then due to injury and also because he is not the most complete quarterback. However, Kaepernick is still considered by many to be a quarterback with talents more than worthy of an NFL roster spot, either as a starter or a backup. On the field, the former Niner still has skills, but Kaepernick’s very public political stances dating back to last season have rubbed the majority of NFL owners the wrong way and as a direct result, he hasn’t been able to earn another contract.
Only time will tell if Kaepernick will eventually get another shot in the NFL but according to Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban, if he was playing in the NBA, his political beliefs wouldn’t be an issue.
From The Washington Post’s Rick Maese:
“I don’t know what his status is in the NFL, but I’m glad the NBA doesn’t have a politician litmus test for our players,” Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said. “I’d like to think we encourage our players to exercise their constitutional rights.”
Never one to shy away from controversial topics, Cuban has been very outspoken since he became the owner of the Mavs in 2000. However, Cuban’s beliefs about how the NBA would treat Kaepernick are at the very least shared by Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal and Phoenix Suns veteran Jared Dudley.
Facts https://t.co/XQARe4PcWx
— Bradley Beal (@RealDealBeal23) August 5, 2017
That's 💯 .. we have our sport owners like @mcuban speaking on the issue but No NFL owners 🤷🏾♂️ https://t.co/zPV82vxZ7A
— Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619) August 5, 2017
Thanks to former commissioner David Stern and current commissioner Adam Silver, the NBA has been the most progressive league out all of the professional sports leagues. That’s why Cuban, Beal, and Dudley have no problem weighing in on Kaepernick.
But while many other professional athletes and even forward thinking owners like Cuban, support Kapernick, the NFL clearly doesn’t. Because of that, Kapernick’s quest to earn another NFL contract may drag on for quite some time, which is luckily an issue the NBA seems built to avoid.
