Twitter users blasted former NBC Sports reporter and current GOP campaign operative Michele Tafoya after an interview on the Megyn Kelly Show in which she said that original NFL anthem-protester Colin Kaepernick could have had a job in the NFL if he “really, really wanted” one.
The NBC Sports veteran made the comments less than a day after her final television appearance as a sideline reporter in Super Bowl LVI. Shortly before her retirement, it was learned that Tafoya intended for the Super Bowl to be her last sports broadcast appearance before joining the gubernatorial campaign of Minnesota Republican Kendall Qualls.
During the interview, Tafoya made the case that Colin Kaepernick would have a job in the NFL if football were his true focus.
“If he really, really wanted — If the one thing he wanted in this life was to be a starting quarterback in the NFL, he’d be one right now, given that he had the talent,” Tafoya said. “But, he made some business decisions… I think he knew what he was risking, and I think that there are some legitimate complaints about race in the NFL and everywhere else in America — but that’s not why Colin Kaepernick’s not in the NFL.”
Michele Tafoya speaks on Colin Kaepernick’s career less than 24 hours after she retired from broadcasting😬 pic.twitter.com/SQgH1CwYAS
— Frank (@frankcrewchief) February 15, 2022
Leftist Twitter users who will accept no other explanation for Kaepernick’s unemployment – other than that which says he’s been blackballed for his political beliefs by racist white owners – were quick to pounce on Tafoya’s comments.
“If the ONE thing he wanted in this LIFE was to be a starting QB”
Michele Tafoya can’t imagine Colin Kaepernick ALSO really wanted police to stop getting away w/murder. It’s analysis like this why owners won’t stop getting away w/criminal collusion. https://t.co/Pl2S0b1Gy8
— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) February 17, 2022
No surprise that she's awful. Kaepernick was the topic when she made a fool out of herself on "The View" back in November. She showed who she is before. She's just amplifying it now. https://t.co/jS2uVuhcax https://t.co/JTw3zSfAlO
— Chad Finn (@GlobeChadFinn) February 17, 2022
Michele Tafoya said @Kaepernick7 made a “business decision” to leave football and become an activist. What a projection. Michele Tafoya made a business decision to leave sideline reporting for a career in making angry, warped white people feel better about their racism and denial
— Mike Wise (@MikeWiseguy) February 17, 2022
This is 100 percent false. But speaking out for civil rights was a “business decision”? Tafoya gives a green light to bosses everywhere—not just the NFL—to collude and reject worthy job candidates because of opinions that have nothing to do with their ability to perform that job. https://t.co/KbQ9nC2KEY
— Jamil Smith جميل كريم (@JamilSmith) February 17, 2022
GTFO with that nonsense https://t.co/LozKR4ssLf
— paul cicchini (@epcicchini) February 17, 2022
Of course, Tafoya did not say that Kaepernick can’t have his own political beliefs. Instead, she’s speaking to the level of dedication one has to be an NFL quarterback. A level of dedication that Kaepernick revealed he did not have when he made an absolute mockery of an NFL tryout the league organized for him in 2019.
Is it far-fetched to believe the NFL would have let Kaepernick back in the league if they felt he’d be totally dedicated to football? The NFL has allowed killers of dogs (Michael Vick) and someone who involuntarily killed a person (Leonard Little) to come back and play.
Tafoya draws the left’s ire because she speaks the truth: The NFL was always there for Kaepernick if he wanted it. He just didn’t want it all that badly.
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