Back in the game? Colin Kaepernick’s NFL career may not be over yet. The former quarterback revealed that he wants to join the NFL again after more than 5 years of not playing, expressing that he wants to join a team no matter what the position.
Kaepernick, along with fellow football stars Chad Johnson, Adam “Pacman” Jones and Brandon Marshall, conversed on the I Am Athlete podcast about their own futures. “I know I have to find my way back in. So if I have to come in as a backup, that’s fine,” Kaepernick expressed. “But that’s not where I’m staying. And when I prove that I’m a starter, I want to be able to step on the field as such.”
The 34-year-old football player left the NFL after a year of protesting racial injustices in 2017. Kaepernick played for the San Francisco 49ers when he first started kneeling during the national anthem. The activist did not renew his contract and did not play for any subsequent teams afterwards. In 2017, Kaepernick filed for a grievance against NFL owners for collusion for depriving “employment rights in retaliation for Mr. Kaepernick’s leadership and advocacy for equality and social justice and his bringing awareness to peculiar institutions still undermining racial equality in the United States.”
However, a couple of NFL teams have asked about Kaepernick’s playing condition and if he still was able to play. “He definitely has the ability to play on somebody’s roster—like, right now,” Kaepernick’s workout partner David Robinson said. “Like, a couple of the guys that were in the session that were on NFL teams were saying that his arm is just as strong as guys’ that we got on our roster right now and can play.”
Though he has recently pursued other ventures such as acting, writing a children’s book and spearheading his “Know Your Rights Camp” campaign, Kaepernick has not backed down from his own training. “I am still up at 5 a.m. training five, six days a week making sure I’m prepared to take a team to a Super Bowl again,” he said in an interview with Ebony. “That’s not something I will ever let go of, regardless of the actions of 32 teams and their partners to deny me employment. The same way I was persistent in high school is the same way I’m gonna be persistent here.”
Image: Courtesy of Scholastic Inc.
“When Colin Kaepernick was five years old, he was given a simple school assignment: draw a picture of yourself and your family. What young Colin does next with his brown crayon changes his whole world and worldview, providing a valuable lesson on embracing and celebrating his Black identity through the power of radical self-love and knowing your inherent worth,” the publisher’s description reads. “I Color Myself Different is a joyful ode to Black and Brown lives based on real events in young Colin’s life that is perfect for every reader’s bookshelf. It’s a story of self-discovery, staying true to one’s self, and advocating for change… even when you’re very little!
I Color Myself Different is available on Amazon
. Colin in Black & White is available to stream on Netflix.
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