If Colin Kaepernick ends up getting released by the San Francisco 49ers, he may have an incredibly difficult time finding work elsewhere.
Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report spoke with seven anonymous NFL executives, and the consensus among all of them is that their teams would never sign Kaepernick in the wake of his national anthem protest.
“I don’t want him anywhere near my team,” one front office executive said. “He’s a traitor.”
“He has no respect for our country,” another exec told Freeman. “F— that guy.”
Each of the seven execs said he believes Kaepernick will never play in the NFL again if and when the 49ers cut the 28-year-old. Taking it a step further, one team official told Freeman he believes 90 to 95 percent of NFL front offices have blacklisted Kaepernick. That same exec said he cannot remember this much “collective dislike” for a player since Rae Carruth, who was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the first round of the 1997 NFL Draft.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Carruth’s story, the former star wide receiver remains in jail after he was convicted of devising a plan to murder his pregnant girlfriend.
That seems a bit harsh. Many people feel Kaepernick’s decision to protest the national anthem is disrespectful, but he certainly doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Carruth.
In any event, Kaepernick’s poor performance on the field last season, his injury history and the current controversy surrounding him will likely turn teams off. If the majority of the league feels as strongly as the executives Freeman interviewed — or this former NFL quarterback, for that matter — Kaepernick’s pro football days could be numbered.
