Free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick completed one of the most unique workouts in NFL history this afternoon. The NFL offered to stage a workout for the quarterback earlier this week. However, Kaepernick’s team became weary of the league’s intentions when his representatives were refused in their requests to open the event to the public. In a last minute decision, Kaepernick’s representation moved the event from the Falcons facility to a public location on their own.
Here’s the latest on the workout and its aftermath:
- When the venue was changed, the NFL released a public statement on NFL.com that expressed they were “disappointed” with Kaepernick’s choice not to participate in the workout they had organized. They claimed “Twenty-five (25) clubs were present for the workout, and all 32 clubs, their head coaches, general managers, and other personnel executives would have received video footage of the interview and workout.” The league also felt the need to note they “made considerable effort to work cooperatively with Colin’s representatives,” among a list of other points that attempted to counter some narratives that the league had been purposely opaque in their negotiations.
- The league also tweeted out from the league’s official account a thread reiterating some main points from the press release. One key point from the league’s perspective, “Colin moved his workout to a facility an hour from Atlanta Falcons Flowery Branch facility. No one got a heads up until NFL saw the Twitter statement.”
- Former Raiders and Browns head coach Hue Jackson was scheduled to run the workout orchestrated by the NFL. However, while Kaepernick’s team invited Jackson to run the workout at the new venue, Jackson returned to the airport, according to Michael Silver of NFL.com.
- WR Bruce Ellington, WR Brice Butler, WR Jordan Veasy, TE/WR Ari Werts, and Panthers S Eric Reid were on the field with Kaepernick for the workout, according to Kaylee Harung of ABC News. The free-agent receivers were likely hoping to catch the eyes of scouts present to view Kaepernick, while Reid has been one of the most consistent advocated for Kaepernick in the league.
- One claim in the announcement made by Kaepernick’s representatives was that the league required he sign an agreement that included language to limit his ability to bring claims against the league. Of course, given Kaepernick’s previous collusion lawsuit against the league, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk argues the workout was a ploy by the league to put Kaepernick “in legal checkmate.”
- In the end, there were not nearly as many teams present at Kaepernick’s workout as the NFL claimed would have been present for the workout they had planned. The Washington football team, Eagles, 49ers, Chiefs, Jets, Titans, and Lions were the teams present for his workout, according to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports.
- The 2-hour workout was streamed on YouTube and consistently maintained roughly 45,000 viewers. On the field, one NFL executive described Kaepernick’s arm talent as “elite” and on the same level as “when he came out of college,” according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
- Teams that had personnel present for the workout noted that the workout consisted of 60 throws and “Basically showed he’s the same guy he was,” according to Albert Breer of MMQB. After the workout, Kaepernick did not hold any formal interviews, but in his closing remarks said he would hold an interview with any team. He also thanked his fans for their support and reiterated, “I’ve been ready. I’m staying ready. And I’ll continue to be ready….The ball’s in their court. We’re ready to go.”
First
so?
Kap deserves to be on somebody’s roster, although I’ll be shocked if it happens sooner than later.
he wants starting money that’s a big issue he’s sticking on that . if he would get off that it would really help him suit up
He has said he would take back up pay to play again. Do some research next time.
Coach Hue leaving and going to airport means he wanted some type of control of workout and he believes he’s still relevant as a coach ! NOT
That Hue Jackson was chosen as the NFL’s point man is a clear indication that Goodell and the league wanted this workout to be a disaster. They’ve never had any intention of allowing Kaepernick back in the league but now there is little doubt that it’s been a co-ordinated case of collusion from the get go.
Why does he deserve to be on a roster? Because a bunch of idiots think so? How about if he had the talent he would still be in the league. He’s not worth the league minimum.
Deserves ? Why , is he special or something ? He deserves just exactly what he got! Hush money from the NFL to walk away and disappear !
I can’t believe all the hate this guy gets for protesting the inequality he perceived; meantime none of the haters will blink an eye now that domestic abuser Kareem Hunt is active again. Hypocrisy, because Kaep would be a better starter than 50% of the leagues QBs, and it’s obvious.
He isn’t tho, and when you combine his performance with the massive pain in the neck he brings… It just isn’t worth it.
He’s free to say what he wants, but choices have consequences.
He sued the NFL and wonders why they dont want him. The average NFL fan does not relate to him.
And I also don’t think hunt should be playing either. So don’t generalize please. Kap is a clown putting on a show and has an alternative motive with all of this. Trying to make money with sponsors and stories and probably books etc. and the media and nfl is falling for it. He is a clown.
The NFL quickly acted to arrive at a settlement knowing the longer the investigation continued the greater the chances of their guilt being exposed.
You can’t believe all the hate a guy gets for disgracing the national anthem that many of our soldiers have died for? Get your head examined!
You don’t have a single clue what he was actually protesting. He worked this out with an actual Navy Seal. It has nothing to do with soldiers or orange skinned morons or most Nazis. It has everything to do with police shooting brown people down.
Brown people shoot more brown people down snowflake! Get your facts right
Soldiers don’t die for the national anthem
Soldiers risk their lives for democracy not the national anthem.
We live in a representative republic not a democracy.
Your sounding like an “Enemy of the State” Mitch. Is this an “Act of Treason”? Should we take “Extreme Measures”, pursue “The Third Option” or simply issue an “Order to Kill’?
Thank you!
Wrong. Soldiers die for oil in meaningless wars. They sign up to be government mercenaries to fight ‘terrorism’. The real terrorists are back home wearing badges.
What do you risk your life for?
50% of the leagues qbs or 50% of who is starting now? He isn’t better than a single starter in the NFC West, South or East. Maybe the Redskins? Then his best shot would be Chicago in the North. So two viable teams in the NFC. In the AFC he isn’t unseating Mayfield or Jackson in the North. The Bengals? Though they’re more than Kaepernick away from winning. The the AFC West he could go start for Denver who he once turned down. In the South he isn’t unseating Watson. But maybe he could be better than Foles or Minshew though why go older when they have who they have? Really most of the NFL starting QBs are set. He could back up and replace someone like Rudolph did in Pittsburgh. He could go to Cincinnati now that they are starting someone outside of Dalton. But there is no real use for him for most teams. If he is who he was before he was last in the NFL. It means he is an average QB at best who doesn’t win games.
Winston would have liked this but his like was intercepted
*ding* the bakery’s open!
He is not better than half the starting QBs. Do some research please.
No he isn’t and he’s not worth the headache of fans not showing up to games to have a proven loser as backup
i couldge lived – begrudgingly – with most of what he has done, but the socks really put him across the line for me. he has his freedom of expression and the owners have the freedom to not sign him if they’d like.
Nobody complains about his protesting everyone just complains about his lack of talent
When you have no use, you’re useless. When you have use then you’re useful. I tried to make it as simple as possible.
LOL You guys are absolutely pathetic. The just call the Seahawks by their name, no reason to call them the Washington football team, we already know that Seattle is in Washington! As a footnote, Washington DC is something completely different! Their team is the Redskins, since you didn’t know that either. /sarcasm off
Agreed! Redskins
Big fan of your work
You cared so much lol. That’s so funny. Good for you man!
yea seems the author is trying to avoid calling the Redskins by calling them the Washington football team but calling all the others by their team names lol. I checked the linked tweet a d the tweet calls the redskins “Redskins” but this article says the Washington football team lol the nfl is getting harder to follow with all the bs
I mean this happened because they moved the venue. I’m curious to see the workout itself but once the venue was done on Kaepernick’s terms, things were going to change. Good for the teams that had people there. They can put a firsthand account of what they saw into the front office. But this entire thing had bugs and moving it the day of made it worse.
He just wants to be a victim.
Kap’s complaints about a secret workout with no names, no footage, no media sound pretty legitimate to me. The phony disclaimer clause sounds like the motivation on the league’s part, a kind of legal checkmate.
Good on Kap for doing the workout publicly. Unlike the NFL, Kapernick has nothing to hide.
that’s one thing i will give him. the league did make the whole situation unreasonably difficult for him, and he had a right to defy it. shouldve postponed to a later date and possibly gotten more teams, or just scheduled farther ahead of time.
He has nothing to hide plus he has no talent to offer this late in his career. He played hardball with his contract demands when he was bounced now he’s paying for it
Yup and blamed his issues on his protest. He is not the voice the black community needs. He caused more decisiveness.
Lions need to put Stafford on IR and let him heal from his broken back and give kaep a chance the rest of the season. It’s better then having to watch Jeff Driskell
Say they sign him and he does poorly. People will blame the surrounding talent and not the QB. To be honest, at the very least the Lions need to upgrade the backup spot. But they don’t need a guy who if he struggles would undermine the rest of the roster.
As a Lions fan I also thought Kap would be a good fit. They are no where near contending and Stafford needs to heal for next year. They are basically playing for draft position now. Worst case he wins. Best case they lose and get decent draft position.
But the worst case of him winning some is then it throws the rest of the team into, should they replace stafford and I think that’d be foolish.
I think having Driskel does two things. Gives him reps to be a more viable backup in the future while safeguarding Stafford’s position on the team as well as a poor draft pick to build on. Kaepernick only makes actual sense on a couple teams. Skins, Bears. Maybe one or two others.
How would people “blame the surrounding talent” the lions have Golladay who leads the nfl with 8 TDs Marvin Jones who has 6 TDs and a top 10 overall pick in a TE in Hockensen that’s as much receiving talent as any team that would pick up kaep has
o-line blows.
Marc, are you a snowflake?
Was really on the fence about this guy until he decided to change the venue at the very last moment so that way he could say the NFL is still against him. This guy is a diva a attention whore and a punk plain and simple. What’s even funnier they talk about his arm being elite well last I checked the guy averaged as a starter in the NFL 183 yards per game sure does not sound he lied to me. He was always an average or below average quarterback and that has not changed.
This stunt, of changing the venue at the last minute, is simply faux fodder for claiming the League isn’t fair to him. Kaepernick has burned bridges but doesn’t want to take responsibility for the bad publicity he brought the league. Many Americans were appalled that he chose to protest the flag and anthem. Just bc the cause may be just doesn’t make the methods just. Now Kaepernick wants to keep himself and his politics in the limelight—that’s what this was about. For good measure, he just had to attack the league he brought disgrace to. What team would want a cancer in the locker room like him? (Don’t fool yourself into thinking those teams want him—they were urged by the league to go… before he set them up and moved the venue.)
“Just bc the cause may be just doesn’t make the methods just.”
This is a great way to articulate the whole issue of sitting and then kneeling for the anthem.
This was all a PR stunt. No one is signing this guy and bringing the media circus that comes with it.
To the writer of this story: “The Washington football team” chose its nickname as a way to honor American Indians, or Native Americans, if you prefer. “Redskins” was a term popular with the Indians and used by them in a proud way. Learning history is a great hobby, just FYI.
Facts, schmacts… moral preening and virtue signalling just feeeeels better.
Him and AP will be legends in the xfl (sarcasm)
The Washington football team? Are you kidding me? This site needs to fire this pathetic excuse for a writer. Is it ok to say Chiefs? Raiders? Browns? You should be ashamed of yourself.
I check this site every day, but if I see more crap like this, I’m gone.
Paul Brown isn’t a color of a person. Red Skins is a racist comment towards native Americans.
How about Chiefs? Vikings? Be an idiot with all of the teams or none of the teams. Don’t pick and choose based on what’s popular in the media.
why do people always lump the Vikings into this category? is Lief Eriksson triggered? its about as offensive as Dallas being the Cowboys.
Why not cowgirls? It’s offensive to women. Now do you get my point? Either pretend to be offended by all names or none of the names. Don’t just pick one because it’s on the news and you want attention.
Why does saying the Washington football team trigger you so much? Maybe your the one who is off that point as nothing to do with the subject of the article and your just looking to comment because the title had Kaepernicks name in it
No, because everyone has become so sensitive to everything in the world and now that is hitting a breaking point to those who weren’t sensitive. Soon animals names will be offensive to animals. Men’s room signs are offensive, you can’t say her, you can’t say merry Christmas, you can’t say you voted for a republican, you can’t have a different view on abortion other than letting the mother abort a baby up to birth, you can’t where a hate that is red with four letters on it, you can’t be a well educated black woman from the north and vote for a republican (or at least let it be known to your friends that you did). Sensitivities have become ridiculous, and now it’s boiled over to the point that the right can’t take it anymore.
This is a sports app nothing to do with politics. People are just using Kaepernicks name in the title of the article to voice their political views. There is no reason the writer of this article saying the Washington football team should trigger someone to be so upset if you like it or not. Read the article for the sports takes no need to bring politics into this
I randomly picked the Chiefs, Raiders, and Browns because they’re in the article, not because it’s a color.
Every Seahawk is proud Seattle picked their name. Nobody would have heard of them if they didn’t.
Wait the mascot was made after the likeness of birds on totem poles. Now the Indians are mad and the real Seahawks want to know why you didn’t use their true likeness. All this PC stuff are we going to have to change our name and logo? Wee want to be PC with everyone including an imaginary bird. Yes kids there is no Seahawk except the ones that play on the field.
Steven get out of moms basement.
Nobody cares how often you check this website…….
Yawn………………..Kap is just one giant circus that teams just don’t want to deal with. So his arm is the same as when he last played. Fine, his performance was not good enough back then to get him a job. IF he were really good, some team would take a shot on him, he’d be worth the headaches he will bring. But he is not that good. Back up level at best. That is still pretty good, I am sure a lot of people would love to be that good. But back ups are not worth it if they bring a lot of trouble, and Kap’s actions leading up to this workout show he will still be trouble. We’ll see if someone sticks their neck out and takes a risk on him. But don’t hold your breath.
Washington football team? Any article from this writer will be scrolled past in the future. What a joke.
Agreed.
Agreed. PC dung
Count me in too as someone who won’t give Marc Delucchi and his crap and clicks in the future either.
Do you think Marc has an issue with Notre Dame “Fighting Irish”. I don’t want politics contaminating my sports and especially SJW snowflake politics.
Dude wore a Kunta Kinte shirt just to make sure every league owner knows that he would be the same clown show he was before if they gave him a job.
Did you say “the washington football team”…. while listing the other team names in attendance? Wow….. hahahahaha. Just wow. The level of snowflake has reached a new low in here
No GM wants to lose their job (no less a job they spent their whole life to attain) and welfare of their family over one man’s protest (even if he/she agrees with them).
It’s about trust. Period.
He is like a bacillus. Who wants it?
He pissed his career away. He will be a media circus where ever he may go
This circus clown has sealed his deal,,,,,,,no more nfl for him,,,what a joke catering to this idiot. If you want to make a political statement do it outside of football.
Give me the heat,,,bring it on
Use of platform available
Snake couldn’t agree more!
Ther terrorist doesn’t wanna play
oh please. if the guy doesnt want to say the darn team’s name then leave him alone about it. its a minor footnote on the article. its not like this guy is, by association, officially changing the team’s name.
All he proved today is that he’s still a self righteous clown that no well run NFL team should waste their time on.
Wait….let me think about this….. ok there we go, I just flushed it down the crapper, no need for the plunger we’re done here. Next topic please.
Redskins…gtfoh with that nonsense
Someone offer the guy league min or practice squad and make sure we all know about it when he reject it. This drama is old … let’s move on.
I still strongly believe he was pitching a fit because he was horrible at the time of his “kneeling” and as a last min excuse for his action he threw out social issues and got rich / famous because of it. I hate that he’s hailed as a hero because I truly don’t believe his intentions from the start was what he depicted. I truly believe he was attempting to save face
If he can’t stand for the National Anthem, which our soldiers put their life on the line for, he should move to another country!
Titans – you will lose over half of your fan base if you sign that clown.