The pass he launches with a flick of the wrist just misses the outstretched arms of Montreal Alouettes receiver Fabian Guerra Jr. and hits the Tequesta Trace Park field gate in the back of the end …
The quarterback rolls out to his right, avoiding the rush for the would-be edge rusher, and hurls the ball 65-yards in the air. The pass he launches with a flick of the wrist just misses the outstretched arms of Montreal Alouettes receiver Fabian Guerra Jr. and hits the Tequesta Trace Park field gate in the back of the end zone. Colin Kaepernick slaps his hands together in disappointment, as if he had just missed a game-winning touchdown pass. It was his final day of on-field work with South Florida professional athletes, and as someone who witnessed the workouts of the former San Francisco 49ers starter, if Kaepernick weren’t being blackballed by the NFL — which settled a lawsuit he and former safety Eric Reid had against the league alleging they collude to keep him out of the NFL — he would still be in the league. And Kaepernick might still be a starter too. The athleticism he used to lead the 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII was still there. His arm was so impressive the consistent complaint from receivers like Jarvis Landry, David Njoku, Jakeem Grant, Brandon Marshall and Chad Ochocinco was that he needed to take a little heat off his throws. I left my interaction with Kaepernick,34, wondering why Geno Smith, Colt McCoy, Brian Hoyer, and Mike Glennon, the usual cast of NFL backups, can easily find work but a talent who has led a team to the Super Bowl can’t? Is it because of the potential controversy that would come from signing a player whose act of kneeling during the playing of a national anthem to create awareness to social justice issues in America would generate? Shouldn’t that divisiveness have went away after the NFL changed its tune on football taking a stand for social justice following the brutal deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, which led to protests across America during the summer of 2020? Or is the messenger more troublesome than the message? “You have End Racism in the back of your end zone.
