San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick became the talk of the league this year with his anti-American protests. Kaepernick recently declared his free agency, then announced he would end his refusal to stand for the national anthem. But, even as the league’s free agents are snapped up at a quickening pace, it appears that Kaepernick is being ignored, thus far going unsigned.
Kaepernick, once considered a burgeoning player with a bright future, helped lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2012 only a year after he went pro. But, the 2011 second-round draft pick never sustained the drive to excellence since 2013, when he helped lead the 49ers to an NFC Championship.
According to rumors, San Francisco wanted to trade him off by 2015, but as the 2016 season began Kaepernick made national news with his increasingly anti-American, anti-police, and pro-black lives matter antics on and off the field.
Even as Kaepernick became the most disliked player in the NFL, the 49ers organization went out of its way to announce support of the player and frequently said they stood behind his protests. The team even awarded Kaepernick a prestigious award for his “inspirational and courageous play.”
At the end of February, Kaepernick announced his free agency, and noted that starting in 2017 he would stand for the anthem and give up his anti-American protest. Few saw the move as anything other than a transparent move to soften his “principled” stance against the country in order to smooth his entrance into free agency.
But thus far, not a single team has made any public moves to sign the notorious quarterback, according to NBC Sports. News that no team is interested in Colin Kaepernick may not be a big surprise in light of data that seems to show he is one of the factors responsible for the crashing ratings for football on TV. Indeed, some analysts have dubbed the falling ratings “the Kaepernick Effect.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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