‘Kaepernick Conundrum’ As Owners Weigh Talent-Versus-Baggage ‘Stadium Security Concerns?’

Nov 16, 2019

ByTHECOUNT.COM "ALWAYS OPEN! Since 2005!"

ATLANTA, GA. (THECOUNT) — The comeback of Colin Kaepernick comes with more than bulging muscles and laser-like throwing skills, it also comes with a lot of baggage, ranging from concerns of the possible reemergence of kneeling, to literal team and stadium securities concerns, should the baller be allowed to touch a game ball again.

Nearly three years after playing his last NFL game, Kaepernick, 32, is currently attempting to show off his lack of rust in what many are calling a flat out publicity stunt – that may or may not result in his return to the game following his own undoing in now infamous 2016 season of Kneelocalypse.

Advertisement

Scouts from more than two dozen teams are currently attending Kaepernick’s viral workout which was curiously organized by the NFL and came complete with a professional camera crew. With one possible but unconfirmed liaison being none other than the new face of the NFL, rapper Jay Z.

The NFL gave Kaepernick five days notice of the “practice” with no room to negotiate, media outlets reported on Friday.

The event popped off this morning at the Falcon’s training facility in Atlanta on the same day scouts are usually performing their other Saturday scouting duties.

The NFL was blasted for this planning this particular scheduled practice, as scouts usually attend college football games and coaches are traveling for their weekly games on Saturdays.

The practice, led by former NFL coach Hugh Jackson, is serving as a job audition of sorts to a man who’s led a team to the Super Bowl. Jackson will be testing his arm strength, conditioning, and mental discipline, reports ABC7.

“It’ll be mostly area scouts, but it will be more than 24 NFL teams, and I think that’s a turnout that has to please everybody involved,” said ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

“I’ve been in shape and ready for this for 3 years,” Kaepernick tweeted back.

Colin Kaepernick via Twitter:

I’m just getting word from my representatives that the NFL league office reached out to them about a workout in Atlanta on Saturday. I’ve been in shape and ready for this for 3 years, can’t wait to see the head coaches and GMs on Saturday.

“The whole thing seems to me to be a manufactured stunt … We don’t know whether they’re going to send head coach, water boy, cheerleader – we’ll wait and see,” said Mark Geragos, Kaepernick’s lawyer.

The once-golden boy quarterback played six seasons for the San Francisco 49ers, and then Trump happened.

Around the time of President Donald Trump’s 2016 election win, Kaepernick started taking a knee during the National Anthem to protest social and racial injustice in the black community. A worthy cause but questionable action to be sure as things would later shake out.

He drew strong criticism from not only President Trump, but also from countless others who saw the move as disrespectful to America, as well as a distraction from the game they had come to know and love.

Cut and fade to his becoming a free agent in the 2017 season and no team was willing to lay a finger on him.

Kaepernick would eventually sued the league for, wait for it, “collusion,” claiming there was a coordinated attempt to keep him off the field. Luckily no “Russians” were not involved in this collusion claim.

The NFL in February smartly settled the collusion grievance Kaepernick and former teammate Eric Reid had levied. Reid, who has never stopped kneeling during the Anthem, now plays for the Carolina Panthers.

Shortly thereafter, Jay Z was contracted.

“If he has any hope and any chance of returning to the NFL — that time is growing really short,” Schefter said.

Twitter erupted on the news of Kaepernick’s possible return, with some saying it was “about time,” to others playing the role of Captain Obvious, pointing out the potential risks and drawbacks:

If anyone knows who or what a “Toby” is, please let us know in the comment section or on social media.

DEVELOPING::

Geo quick facts: Atlanta is the capital of the U.S. state of Georgia. It played an important part in both the Civil War and the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Atlanta History Center chronicles the city’s past, and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site is dedicated to the African-American leader’s life and times. Downtown, Centennial Olympic Park, built for the 1996 Olympics, encompasses the massive Georgia Aquarium – wikipedia.