It’s amazing to me despite my feelings for Colin Kaepernick how he has not been given a chance to play football. The Jacksonville Jaguars are the perfect example of a team who desperately need a Quarterback who can make them a winner. Chad Henne and Blake Bortles are not QBs ready to take over a team and to be quite honest, they never will.
Chad Henne is a bonafide back up. As a starter Henne has compiled a win-loss record of 18-35 and a career Quarterback Rating of 75.5. He has thrown 58 Touchdowns and 63 Interceptions in the span of a 9 year career.
Blake Bortles had an ok start to his career. His second year in the league he threw for 35 Touchdowns and 18 interceptions and has a career Quarterback Rating of 79.6. Compared to Henne, Bortles in just 3 years has surpassed Henne in Touchdowns thrown and QB Rating.
Unfortunately neither QB is good enough to be the starting Quarterback for that team. That’s where Colin Kaepernick comes in, now feelings aside, Colin is a QB who is a proven winner and has all the tools to win in the NFL. His problem isn’t on the field of play, his problem comes from what he did last year in kneeling during the National Anthem in a way to protest inequality towards African Americans.
The problem with his protest was that he not only kneeled which is perfectly within his rights to do but he wore items of clothing that seemed to almost contradict what he was protesting. For example, he wore a pair of socks with pigs in police hats on, while that is also within his rights, he had to know it would get peoples attention and whether he wanted to or not, he was/is a role model to minorities seeking equality.
The socks were a problem because it was disrespectful towards the same police who protect and escort him during game day to and from the stadium. The socks weren’t the only item of clothing that caused controversy though. Colin Kaepernick wore a shirt that had Malcom X and Fidel Castro on it, which would have been perfectly fine to some people.
When he was interviewed prior to his game with the Miami Dolphins last year about it by Miami Herald reporter Armando Salguero in that call with Salguero and other South Florida reporters, Colin was asked why he wore a shirt that featured one of 20th centuries biggest oppressors in Fidel Castro, Kaepernick responded by saying he didn’t wear a Fidel Castro shirt, but a Malcolm X shirt.
After a few minutes of back and forth where Kaepernick stood his ground saying he wore a Malcolm X shirt and he wore that particular shirt because of what Malcolm X stood for, he made a mistake in saying that Fidel Castro had done some good for the cuban people. See, it’s ok for someone who comes to visit from Cuba who has agreed with the Castros policies and believe me those people do exist, but for an African American National Football League QB who is kneeling and protesting oppression towards his people he has absolutely no reason to defend Fidel Castro.
Colin Kaepernick made his own bed and has to lay in it. With that being said, the Jacksonville Jaguars can’t and probably won’t find a better QB who has an 88.9 Career Passer Rating a 70-30 TD to INT ratio. So despite all the questionable things Kaepernick has done, he deserves a chance to compete in the NFL.
