NFL.Com Catches Flak for Marking Kaepernick as ‘Retired’ in Player Profiles

On Saturday, NFL.com was called on the carpet for changing Colin Kaepernick’s player status to “retired” on his profile page.

On Friday, fans began to notice the status change on Kaepernick’s statistics page. In short order, fans and other Kaepernick supporters kicked up a fuss on social media over the change because the national anthem protesting player has never officially said he is retired.

Sometime over the next 24 hours, NFL.com made another change to the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback’s status. Now he is marked as “UFA,” meaning he is an Unrestricted Free Agent.
Kaepernick’s girlfriend Nessa, a Muslim activist and radio host, thanked supporters for demanding that the website drop the “retired” designation.

“Thank you to everyone who held the @NFL accountable for falsely reporting that Colin’ retired’ on their website,” Nessa, tweeted. “They heard you loud [and] clear [because] the NFL put the accurate description that @Kaepernick7 is a Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA). Tell them to stop denying him employment.”

Thank you to everyone who held the @NFL accountable for falsely reporting that Colin “retired” on their website. They heard you loud & clear bc the NFL put the accurate description that @Kaepernick7 is a Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA). Tell them to stop denying him employment. pic.twitter.com/klK7a6qRTY

— NESSA (@nessnitty) May 23, 2020

Kaepernick will likely never claim that he has retired, and still today, three years after he last played pro football, he claims he is ready to re-launch his football career.

But his actions tell the league a different story. In 2017 he rejected an offer from the 49ers to remain with the team and sign a new contract. Then he reportedly turned down an offer from the Denver Broncos. He even jacked his salary demand so high that the nascent AAF league couldn’t employ him. And last year, the league offered him a special workout in front of team representatives to prove that he is still in playing shape, but he refused to attend, instead holding his own workout as a media stunt.

Whether he is an “unrestricted free agent” or not, it seems doubtful at this point that Colin Kaepernick will ever play pro football again.

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