One of the bigger subplots of NFL free agency this year has been Colin Kaepernick’s continued quest to find a spot on a roster. The former Niners quarterback hasn’t signed anywhere, and according to Richard Sherman, it has nothing to do with his ability on the football field.
“I’m sure he is,” Sherman told ESPN’s First Take on Friday morning when he was asked if the league is blackballing Kaepernick. “It’s difficult to see because he’s played at such a high level, and you see guys, quarterbacks, who have never played at a high level being signed by teams. So it’s difficult to understand. Obviously he’s going to be in a backup role at this point. But you see quarterbacks, there was a year Matt Schaub had a pretty rough year and got signed the next year. So it has nothing to do with football. You can see that. They signed guys who have had off years before.”
Sherman also said that the league doesn’t have 32 starting-caliber signal callers, and remarked that he believes Kaepernick would be a starter on “probably 20 of the teams in this league.”
Saying that Kaepernick is getting blackballed isn’t necessarily a controversial thought – an AFC general manager told Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman that approximately 70 percent of teams “genuinely hate” Kaepernick for his national anthem protest. But Sherman is the most prominent NFL player to have Kaepernick’s back like this, not only pointing out that he’s struggling to find a team for reasons that have nothing to do with his on-field performance, but also by saying that he is good enough to start for about two-thirds of teams.
Sherman has commented on the discourse surrounding Kaepernick in the past, as he gave his thoughts about Kaepernick’s protest before the Seahawks played the Niners last season.
(Via ESPN)
