Colin Kaepernick Claims He's Working on an NFL Return - And a Run at the Olympics
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Another season of NFL football is forthcoming, which means it’s time for the annual reminder that former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is still not employed.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Kaepernick made clear that — despite not having played professional football in nearly eight years — he still thinks he can be a key cog on a championship team.
In a video posted Aug. 12, Sky Sports spoke to Kaepernick about the (controversial) Olympics and the conversation started off innocuous enough.
In fact, Kaepernick opened the interview speaking about the Team USA men’s basketball team that just won gold in Paris (the interview occurred before the actual gold medal game).
After lauding some of Team USA’s stalwarts, like LeBron James and Stephen Curry, the interviewer broached a sport that Kaepernick is a little more familiar with.
“It seems the Olympic spirit has got to you, as well,” the interviewer said. “Obviously, the next Olympics is in [Los Angeles]. Will we see you play flag football in 2028?”
“Hopefully, we’ll be out there,” Kaepernick said, with a laugh. “We’re going to work on some things and see if we can make it in there, but we’d love to be out there.”
Given the difference between “real” football and its flag-based variant, it’s actually not a stretch to think that Kaepernick could sneak his way onto the Olympic team.
And had he left it at that, he probably wouldn’t be having formerly-favorable outlets calling him “delusional.” (More on this shortly.)
“And will we see you play [in the] NFL again?” the interviewer asked.
A slightly more pensive Kaepernick quickly gathered his thoughts before answering: “We’re still training. We’re still pushing. So, hopefully, we, uh, just got to get one of these team owners to open up.”
The interviewer swiftly followed up, asking, “What would it mean to you to play [in the] NFL again?”
“I mean, it’s something I’ve trained my whole life for, so being able to step back on that field, I think that would be a major moment, a major accomplishment for me,” Kaepernick responded. “Also, I think it’s something that I could bring a lot to a team and help them win a championship.”
The conversation pivoted away from football at that point, but the response to Kaepernick’s latest comeback attempt was telling.
Even outlets that have historically been sympathetic to Kaepernick’s unfounded claims of being “blackballed” from the league, urged the former quarterback to give up.
Take, for instance, a rather scathing critique from left-leaning Mike Florio‘s Pro Football Talk:
Colin Kaepernick says he still wants to play in the NFL. More than seven years since he last played, it comes off as delusional. https://t.co/bLpbVFZkm6
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) August 13, 2024
“Colin Kaepernick says he still wants to play in the NFL,” Pro Football Talk’s official X account posted. “More than seven years since he last played, it comes off as delusional.”
(And yes, you can see just how sympathetic Florio and his crew still are to Kaepernick if you read the entire article.)
Kaepernick became a notorious household name when, in 2016, the then-benched 49ers quarterback began protesting during the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” He first sat during the anthem, before choosing to kneel for it.
While Kaepernick claimed that he was doing it in the name of social justice, many critics construed his antics as a last-ditch stunt to stay relevant.
The 36-year-old Kaepernick last played an NFL game on Jan. 1, 2017.
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