Many of this year’s top free agents have come off the board, but there has been nary a word of interest in safety Eric Reid. The former 49er believes that teams are staying away from him due to his social activism and decision to knee during the national anthem. 
“The notion that I can be a great signing for your team for cheap, not because of my skill set, but because I’ve protested systemic oppression, is ludicrous. If you think is, then your mindset is part of the problem too,” Reid tweeted.
Before the start of free agency, I ranked Reid as the 23rd best player available on our top 50 list with the caveat that Reid’s anthem protest participation could hurt him. That’s likely the case, as lesser free agents at his position have already found NFL homes for 2018. For his part, Reid believes that football evaluators are interested in signing him, but owners of teams are standing in the way of a deal.
“GMs aren’t the hold up, broski,” Reid wrote in response to someone on Twitter. “It’s ownership. People who know football know who can play. People who know me, know my character.”
Reid graded out as the No. 30 ranked safety in the NFL last year, per Pro Football Focus, and did so while playing a number of snaps out of position at linebacker. At just 26 years old, he profiles as a candidate for a substantial multi-year deal in terms of football ability.
In recent days, safeties Kurt Coleman, Tavon Wilson, Cody Davis, Nate Ebner Rafael Bush, and Keith Tandy inked multi-year deals with clubs. All of those players are older than Reid and ranked substantially lower in PFF’s advanced metrics last year. At the same time, the safety market has moved slower than other position groups, so Reid could have better luck once bigger names such as Tyrann Mathieu, Tre Boston, and Kenny Vaccaro ink deals.
If that’s true then coming out and saying this isn’t going to help his cause
This could be true, but in a sense it also puts more pressure on the owners who are already dealing with a collusion lawsuit about Kaepernick to just sign Reid at this point. Especially when there’s a whole paragraph about much worse players at the same position getting better deals at an older age. Quarterbacks with significantly less experience and skills get paid while Kaepernick is unemployed. It’s bad for all parties involved but the owners sure look like and are the bad guys in this situation, the other two guys are just trying to play football.
Gotta love it! Disrespect this country and the soldiers who allow you to make money playing a child’s sport you don’t get paid you idiot. #merica
It must hurt to be as dumb as you are
Agreed.
Sportsfan is spot on. MZ311 and Casey what don’t you get?
The guy has to live with his consequences. He would be on a team right now if he wasn’t dumb himself.
Start a charity. Support a school. Many other ways to get attention standing up for yourself.
Josh Rosen is about to be drafted pretty early in the draft while he is outspoken against Trump and just as political as Kaep or Reid, so why is this young white quarterback valued when neither Kaepernick or Reid are? These aren’t scrubs, those guys know how to play football.
Agreed
Very good point
Also if you had the time to look up anything beyond a biased source that already caters to you, you would know how much Kaepernick has donated, worked in communites, and how much he’s done for athletes to be able to speak out on social injustice, all while being unjustly unemployed by the will of the owners who can’t answer questions about racism.
And how do you know, dugdog83, that Reid hasn’t done some of those things, or similar ones. Kaepernick has donated a million dollars to gorups working on everything from homelessness to at-risk families, and prison reform to helping neighborhoods in Houston affected by Hurricane Harvey.
If Matt Birk and Mark Bavaro could keep their jobs while opposing legal abortion – in bavaro’s case, while helping to blockade a clinic! – than I don’t see why Kaepernick and Reid should be blacklisted for trying to draw attention to the fact that police almost always suffer no legal consequences for killing unarmed people of color.
Please do explain how our military actions are part of the revenue that the league is profiting from?
Why is being openly ignorant a badge of honor for ‘mericans? Can I get as offended by your lack of proper recognition of the name of our nation as you can get for people not standing for the flag. You’re a clown, get out and vote, because I promise I vote against you everytime
That choice of words: “allow you to make money” is inherently racist. You don’t allow people to do things, they do it because they have freedom because this is America. You do not have the right to “allow” someone to do something, you don’t own them, you don’t know them, so sit your butt down on the couch and watch them play football and shut up.
I don’t agree that the phrase “allow you to make money” is inherently racist. It’s dismissive of the fact that people WORK to make money, and ignorant of the fact that most workers are underpaid relative to the value that they add to the economic activities in which they are engaged.
Also, in combination with “playing a child’s sport,” sportsfan101 sounds like all of the sports fans who opposed player unionization back in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, and have sided with the owners against the players in every lock-out or strike there ever was. It’s especially ironic and pathetic since many of these fans are wannabe players themselves and would kill to be able to play “a child’s sport” for money, even if very few of the rest of us would ever want to pay to see them play.
What’s especially offensive to me about the phrase “playing a child’s sport” is that it puts up a smoke screen around the harm done to so many players’ bodies and minds by playing this child’s sport. I really wouldn’t like to see what would happen to sportsfan101 if he or she suffered the number of concussions or broken bones or shredded knees that professional athletes suffer all the time. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. It would be nice if sportsfan101 thought about that the next time he wants to refer to professional athletes as “playing a child’s sport.”
I think it is in that it creates a slave mentality to the work that they are doing. In the history of the US, black people keep gaining more rights that they simply didn’t have before, from drinking from the same water fountains and riding at the front of the bus to voting. Things that they should have been allowed to do in the first place, but now they should be grateful to someone else for allowing them to do it? When it’s “we LET you play” that’s what leads to things like McNair’s “inmates running the asylum” comments or Laura Ingraham’s “shut up and dribble” comments. That type of thinking; I am allowing you to do this so you better not try to ask for anything else or open your mouth, goes hand in hand with racism and is often the excuse to dismiss an athlete’s insight on racial injustice.
“Things that they should have been allowed to do in the first place, but now they should be grateful to someone else for allowing them to do it?”
Ah! I think I’m understanding more of where you’re coming from. I’m still not sure I agree with your characterization, but I think I have a better idea of what you’re getting at. Thanks for the explanation.
Haha no problem! Thank you for the discussion, I’m loving all of your comments on this thread.
Hey Eric, you made your point, took your stance, now live with the consequences.
There shouldn’t have to be consequences for peacefully defending your beliefs
Agreed. There are consequences to all actions, good and bad, on all sides. He has a right to take this stance, but others have the right to hold that against him. See Kaepernick and Curt Schilling.
Not if even two teams have colluded in keeping him out of a job. Employers and companies have been found to have colluded to suppress wages and limit employment opportunities all the time, from Major League Baseball to Apple Computers. And don’t even get me started on wage theft!
Kaep doesn’t have a job because he’s not a good QB. If he had the skills of Aaron Rodgers, he’d still be starting for SF. The fact is, his talent doesn’t validate the side show and distraction that come with him. It really has nothing to do with his kneeling. A GM and owner has to weigh whether the distractions and publicity and potential rift in the locker room. You can bet that if Rodgers or Brady or Russell Wilson, or any other good QB decided to kneel or object in some way to social injustice, they would not be cut. His below average ability at QB isn’t worth the baggage. Plain and simple.
He’s better than most of the backup QBs though, but he draws more attention that necessary for a backup QB. The only “backup” QB that would draw more headlines would be Tebow (who I doubt plays again).
And who is much worse than Kaerpernick.
Oh, BS. That’s a cop-out and is not supported by either the basic stats or, if memory serves, by the various analytics websites with their multiple observers watching every play of every game. And it’s not supported by conversations that journalists have reported with owners and executives who estimate that far more of their brethren are not hiring Kaepernick because they hate his guts rather than are afraid of fan reaction OR think he is a below average QB.
#karma and consequences of disrespecting the flag, our country, and our military. There is no correlation between his perceived persecution and the actions he took. Reaping what he sowed.
You do realize how hypocritical your statement is right? You’re saying him not getting signed is karma for his actions, but then you say there is no correlation between him not getting signed and the actions he took.
“Stystemic oppression”… what exactly is racist in law in America? Affirmative action? The media has created this false sense of reality that racism is everywhere. It’s sad to see. Just obey the laws and treat others how you’d like to be treated and others will treat you with respect. All this kneeling stuff is creating division between Americans and it’s all based on lies
Except for the fact that systemic racism has been built into the backbone of the whole thing. And before anymore white people say they haven’t been the beneficiary of systemic racism check the history books. The Homestead Act and the GI Bill were government handouts that mobilized whites who would have gone nowhere otherwise.
I teach AP Government and APUSH. You are too dense to fully explain this too I’m sure. So I’ll summarize. Slavery arrived in America in the early 1600s. Until the Civil Rights Act in 1964 it was legal under law to enslave/discriminate against African Americans. 350 years of prejudice legally on the books. And you think a couple law changes in recent decades solved the problem? Moron
So if that is the case how do you solve the issue? Have all white people give their land to blacks? That’s what I’m saying man. Like we can’t be living in the past and think we can’t overcome those times. 2 wrongs doesn’t make a right. I want everyone in America to feel like they’re treated the same and that we can get along. The past happened and it was terrible. But as a white person what can I do to “make even” for something I had 0 control over? We don’t know who benefited from what, if anything at all. There are whites struggling too. There are blacks who are succeeding. Not everyone struggling/succeeding is due to slavery. That’s what makes America great. You are free to work hard and pursue the same things that any other person can. Nothing is stopping anyone from working hard and reaching their goals. I think the issue with black America is that the Democratic Party sits there and creates the false vision of victim mentality that any issue you have is because of slavery and the white man. They don’t care about blacks making it out of poverty or blacks to stop killing each other. They just want a vote. So they sit and tell them what they want to hear. What progress was made under Obama in terms of race? We had a black president, but the country is full of racists? Don’t let the media fool you that racism is everywhere in today’s society. And for those sitting, what needs to happen for them to stand?
Try telling me that systemic racism and classism doesn’t exist after reading this recent news: link to chicagotribune.com
This, redlining, bank lending habits, etc. have gone on for decades, impacting minority and poor communities. Before we even start worrying about how to make things “right” again, we’ve got to create a level playing field in the first place.
And as white people, what we can do is acknowledge the past and recognize how it has shaped the present, and use our influence – either through voting, protesting, whatever – to do our part to rectify the situation as it currently exists. No ones asking you to give half your house to a black person, just acknowledge the reality rather than being defensive.
I think the definition of racism today is wrong. A bank shouldn’t have to give a loan to anyone if they feel they cant pay it back. If it’s simply because they’re a certain color, then yes that’s racist and shouldn’t happen. But for someone to see that someone lives in the slums, unfortunately there probably is reason to be skeptical whether or not it’ll be paid back. There are whites in the slums too, so to jump to racism isnt right. And there is lots of acknowledgement: black history month, affirmative action, many MLK dedications, Jackie robinsons number retired. Many blacks people live much better lives than whites. It’s a lie to manipulate votes
If banks don’t give home loans strictly because you currently live in the slums, how are you ever supposed to get out of the slums?
Homeownership is the greatest driver of generational wealth and financial stability. The history of our own city of Baltimore is the epitome of housing discrimination and redlining.
Black history month and affirmative action don’t undo centuries and generations of discrimination. We need to re-examine our existing policies and practices and set a new course.
At some point there needs to be action within the community. People want to help, whether the media will say it or not, but there is too much violence to invest anything in the cities. They need direct help from people they look up to…. like Colin kaepernick, eric Reid. But these guys tell them that they will never be anything because they’re the victim so they sit there and wait for apparent racism to end and think that’ll fix their poverty and violence. No. It starts from within. They need to end the no snitch rule and help the police get these criminals out, end any drug use, and just overall live with some passion to end the mess that the inner city is in. Then we can see real change
“At some point there needs to be action within the community.”
And you think there isn’t? I’ve seen literally countless reports over the years in local TV news about black community efforts to fight so-called “black-on-black” violence and crime, from gun buy-back schemes and mentoring programs by groups of black professionals to anti-gang programs, often done in close collaboration with the cops. No one is just waiting around for “apparent racism to end” to end violence, too.
Also, crime, including violent crime, has been on an historic down trend for 25 years, across the nation, conservative and liberal communities alike. And there’s a lot of investment going on in the cities, it’s just that the majority of current residents are being pushed out in the process, moving from Harlem and Bed-Stuyvesant to the old inner suburbs or to cities, towns and villages outside of and farther away from their local metropolis. Troy and Hudson, NY, are two examples that I can remember being remarked upon as long ago as the late-90’s.
Also, as I noted on the other recent thread mentioning Kaepernick, he just finished giving a million dollars he had pledged to groups across the country working on issues from homelessness to at-risk families to post-Hurricane Harvey construction efforts in Houston. No one is just waiting around for “apparent racism to end” to end poverty, too.
highplainsdriftr: “Until the Civil Rights Act in 1964 it was legal under law to enslave/discriminate against African Americans.”
You are only partially correct. One could discriminate against African-Americans legally until the passage of the Civil Rights Act, but you could not legally enslave them, or anyone else, unless they were convicted of a crime and imprisoned. The language regarding slavery and involuntary servitude is in the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, if memory serves. That language is today responsible for paying prisoners sub-minimum wages for jobs they do in prison, which helps suppress the wages of ALL workers by undercutting their wages, from furniture manufacturing workers to phone center workers.
Wow I love when people come with the facts. I never even considered the fact that prison labor undercuts everyone else’s wages, that seems like something that would actually get people to care about the people who are doing the slave labor. If “they’re taking our jobs” is enough to secure 10s of billions in funding to build a border wall, “slave labor is taking our money” should be enough to start a conversation about the prison systems. And with marijuana being legalized everywhere, there are a whole lot of people who were arrested for it who deserve to be freed.
Oh, it’s a multi-billion dollar a year industry. “Corcraft” is the infamous New York State “business” built on the barely paid labor of inmates of the state’s prisons. We’re not talking about just license plates here, we’re talking furniture and much more. And, of course, the industry has been expanding over the last 30 years, even as unions have been bashed and gutted.
Obama, the hypocrite, should have pardoned every single federal inmate in jail for low-level pot possession and dealing. Not to mention Leonard Peltier and anyone else convicted on federal charges built on police and/or prosecutorial misconduct.
I seriously thought that’s the last thing Obama was going to do before he left office, but he was just a representative of the broken system even though everyone thought he’d be the one to make change happen. It’s just ridiculous because the middle class keeps shrinking, there is still a version of slavery going on, homelessness is at an all time high, and capitalism is still built on the American dream: you work hard and you can succeed. But when you put so many people at a disadvantage to succeed in the first place, it’s not a dream, it’s a nightmare. The really really rich folks in this country had like a 300 year head start and that’s just not fair.
A man shot over 40 times after he pulled his wallet out of his pocket to give it to the “muggers” who turned out to be cops. A man shot in the back running away from police. A child shot and killed because one cop pulled his car up to the child rather than stopping at a distance so that he and his partner could actually determine what was going on. A man shot while reaching for the gun in his glove compartment THAT HE HAD TOLD THE COP HE WAS REACHING FOR (Or was it his drivers license? These cases all seem to run together after a while). I mention these specific cases because some conservative pundits and columnists have criticized the police in each of these cases, and yet I can’t tell you if any of the cops in any of these cases suffered any legal consequences for their actions. Just obeying the law and abiding by the Golden Rule does not, often enough, ensure that a person of color (or a poor white person, too!) will be treated with respect. Too often, the treatment is as far from respect as one can imagine.
There’s more too if. You can’t believe everything you hear. Hands up don’t shoot was built on a lie. That is what the media has falsely done to American cops: created this image that there is total corruption and racism. Yes there are bad cops and justice should be served, as it has been when there was no reason to shoot. You act like if you’re any regular black man walking down the street the cops will shoot you. That’s where obeying the law and showing respect keeps you alive. I can’t imagine being a cop in the inner city today.
“Hands up don’t shoot was built on a lie.”
If it was, it was also built on years of systemic abuse, and I’m not throwing the word “systemic” out this time, I’m talking specifically about the use of ticketing as a way of funding local government that the Dept. of Justice found in their study of Ferguson and, I believe, other local suburbs.
“You act like if you’re any regular black man walking down the street the cops will shoot you. That’s where obeying the law and showing respect keeps you alive.”
I just gave you two examples of where “obeying the law and showing respect” did not keep you alive, and I would bet that there are more. My mother was once waiting at a bus stop with a black male co-worker and a cop came up to them and asked her if the man was accosting her, and was rude enough to him – and to her after she had told him that he was not – that she told the family about it. Again, I would bet that many black friends of yours would have similar stories to tell.
“Yes there are bad cops and justice should be served, as it has been when there was no reason to shoot.”
The other two examples were of excessive force and/or police misconduct and still the cops got off legally scot-free.
In the 40 shots by police officer incident, the guy was fleeing from the police and fired shots at them. You know, just strolling down the road when the racist cops shot him. And you will have stories where there is racism or unjustified shootings (not every shooting by any race on a different race is racism if that was not the motive) by all races. We are born with a sinful nature and racist people will always exist. But how many stops of black people occur where there is no issue? Numerous.
“In the 40 shots by police officer incident, the guy was fleeing from the police and fired shots at them.”
No, the incident I was referring to involved Amadou Diallo, who was unarmed. The testimony by the plainclothes police that they had identified themselves was contradicted by a witness. Th police misidentified the wallet he pulled out and held up as a gun and when one of the four cops tripped and fell backwards, they thought he had been shot.
“(not every shooting by any race on a different race is racism if that was not the motive)”
I agree, and in the Diallo case, I don’t think there was any overt racism, but a lot of assumptions were made that, statistically speaking, probably would not have been made about white suspects.
“But how many stops of black people occur where there is no issue? Numerous.”
Yes, but how many stops of black people occur where there is no REAL cause? Also numerous.
Give the dude a contract, I dont care about your beliefs and actions as long as they do infringe on mine or anyone else’s rights. The dude can play, plain and simple, you would be dumb not to sign him.
Stand for the anthem and don’t be disrespectful it’s pretty simple.
And God Bless the Land of the Free, unless you refuse to stand for the national anthem. I bet you would have been in favor of jailing Jehovah’s Witnesses who refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance, too. No, wait, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one. You’d be okay with them being denied employment, but not being jailed. That sounds right.
Welcome to America. Where citizens take pride in their stupidity and overt racism. Good for Reid for calling out the system. Again, this has nothing to do with disrespecting the military, but standing up in the face of systemic injustice.
I also find it quite the paradox that privileged, ignorant, white men are the fan base of a sport that watches primarily African American athletes beat up on each other. And then a black person says something, and the white male says, “We can’t have the inmates running the prison!”
I agree completely. The intended message of the athletes got, for lack of a better term, hijacked by those against the athletes kneeling. Granted, some of the things done by Kapernick in the beginning didn’t help (the Castro shirt and the pig/cop socks), but the message the entire time was that there is a difference in the way racial minorities and majorities are treated by other people, the government, businesses, etc,. Along the way, some people believed the message to be that the athletes didn’t like the country and were disrespecting the flag, the military, and the people living in the country. Aside from Kapernick’s actions (that I listed above, and I think he apologized for but I could be wrong so if I am my bad), not one of the athletes who participated in this said that disrespect was the message of their protest. If you don’t like what the athletes are doing, that’s fine. That’s your opinion and how you feel and I respect that. But at least get the facts straight on why the athletes are kneeling before coming to a conclusion on how you feel.
Talk about overt racism, what do you call your statement above?
That was meant for Mgrauboo.
If I was the owner of a team, I would have the right to employ anybody I wanted to. This is a business. Why should I be told who I have to and not have to hire? That makes no sense at all to me.
Any Owner the does not want Eric Reidas an employee for whatever reason shouldn’t have to be made to feel guilty about it. It’s his choice and his company.
It can’t be that simple can it? He made a choice, and so are the owners? Somebody has to give him a job right? Because that’s American.
If the owners are all acting independently of each other, it is their legal right to deny Reid a job. However, if even two of them are colluding with each other to deny someone employment, to suppress their wages (Steve Jobs and much of Silicon Valley) or to limit their employment opportunities (ditto), than that is collusion and is against the law. I believe it was Major League Baseball that saw a successful claim of collusion against it in the 1990’s.
As to the morality of denying someone employment for their political activities, why should an owner be able to do that if said activities are not affecting the ability of that person to do his or her job? Hell, I’m a Commie Pinko Red spent four years defending abortion clinics, and I’d hire an anti-abortion activist or right-winger or even a fascist to do most jobs, and defend their right to hold said jobs unless it got in the way of their duties.
Why should we accept dictatorship and the divine right of kings (owners) in private employment when we find it distasteful in the governance of the Republic? Hell, the players union should have shut down the damn sport until some team signed Kaepernick, and they should refuse to take part in OTA’s until both Kaerpernick and Reid are signed. Then let’s see what choices the owners make.
I do think it’s that simple.
How many NBA owners would trade for Lorenzo ball right now knowing that his dad was part of thePackage. Would those owners that would not trade for ball be subject to ridicule? I doubt it. To me it’s pretty much the same thing.
A trade for a guy with a controversial parent and signing a guy who has done some controversial, but legal, actions are two different things.
In Lonzo’s case, the Lakers are willing to deal with it because they know Lavar is just all noise. From everything I’ve seen, Lonzo has been a great teammate and isn’t controversially outspoken like his dad. If an owner didn’t want to trade for him, it’d be more likely because the front office didn’t want to give up the assets necessary for him.
In Reid’s case, and we can’t be 100% sure until most of the other free agent safeties sign, it’e either because of his talent, the money he is asking for, or for his past actions. Reid is a talented player and is at worst a good backup safety, so we can rule talent out (scheme will also play a part but most teams would find a way to fit him in if they had the need at safety). We don’t know how much Reid is asking for but if he was willing to settle for less, if not the veteran’s minimum, than what some of the other safeties have/will be getting than you can rule out money. If Reid is asking for a high amount though, him still being unsigned is reasonable although you have to figure that at some point he’d come down on his price and take the best deal that gets offered to him. If we find out that Reid’s asking price isn’t prohibitive, then it has to be because of his controversial actions. Employers have the right to not sign/hire a person that they don’t want to but you’re then acknowledging that his past actions are the reason why they don’t want to sign him. And in a league where guys with a PED use history (cheating) or guys who are charged with crimes are able to find a second/third chance, not signing a guy because of his political views seems petty.
It could be viewed as stupid but my point is an owner has a choice to sign a player or not for whatever reason he wants to. If he doesn’t want to sign someone because of something he did that’s his choice it’s his company it’s his business.
I really don’t think it has to do with their political views it all. It has to do with when where and how they express them. I’m sure a lot of the owners have the same political views as Kaepernick and Reid but what they are doing is making a business decision.
A “lot” of NFL owners being concerned about cops killing people of color who they believed were often unarmed and killed for no legitimate reason? NFL owners are not generally known for their liberal political views, let alone radical ones, so I think you are being just a tad naive, there. Good hearted, maybe, but naive.
“often” unarmed?
My brain is pretty mushy right now after revising an alternative history story of mine, but this was probably my inelegant and confusing way of distinguishing between the obviously unarmed and those who the cops thought, or claimed they thought, were armed, including Diallo and Tamir Rice. At least, I think that’s what I thought I was doing, but I’m not surezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I think players should just place some of their personal beliefs out of the field and stop all that drama . Approve abou Kap beliefs and Reid but come on, they are paid to play the game and not create controversies. It would be a shame to loose such a talent cuz owners want t stay away from these players . They are good people and have good intention but let’s move on and not bring this to the field
This is stupid. I don’t care how good you are, you’re an employee and it creates a problem for a business. No one wants to hear what I have to say at my job, what makes him any different?
I agree.
just the other day they had an article to the effect how Reid wasn’t going to let the fact that his anthem protests might hurt his signing potential change him, now he’s complaining that it’s hurting him. Protests aside, right or wrong, he knew that it was going to hurt his market, but did it anyway and now he’s got a problem with that.