Colin Kaepernick is serious about wanting to return to the NFL, and he’s willing to be a backup quarterback if it takes it to get back into the league.
“I know I have to find my way back,” Kaepernick told Brandon Marshall, Chad Johnson and Adam “Pacman” Jones in an interview with the podcast I Am Athlete. “So yeah, if I have to come in as a backup, that’s fine. But I’m not staying there. And if I prove I’m a starter, I want to be able to step onto the field as one. I just need this opportunity to walk through the door.”
Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL since 2016, the same season he began kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice. He said in the interview that if there is reluctance to sign him because of his protest, today’s NFL should be more in line with his views.
“You have ‘End Racism’ on the back of your end zone. You have ‘Black Lives Matter’ on your helmet. Everything I said should be consistent with what you say publicly,” he said. “It’s a $16 billion deal. When I first got on my knees, my jersey went number 1. When I made the deal with Nike, their value went up by $6 billion. Six billion. With a B
“… So when you talk about the business side, it shows [it’s] advantageous. If you’re speaking from the player side, come in, let me line up. There you can rate me. The NFL is meant to be a meritocracy. Come in, let me line up. If I’m not good enough, get rid of me. But let me come in and show you.”
Kaepernick recently threw to undrafted receivers for NFL scouts at halftime in Michigan’s spring game at the invitation of Jim Harbaugh, his former San Francisco 49ers coach. In the interview with “I Am Athlete,” Kaepernick noted that both of his 49ers coaches, Harbaugh and Chip Kelly, said he “made the locker room better,” as opposed to a narrative that he would be a distraction for any team that did obliged him.
“In this 2016 season, my last year, my teammates voted me the bravest and most inspiring player. So when you talk about the people that are in the building, it never came out that I was a distraction. It never came out that I was a problem for the people I played with,” he said.
Kaepernick noted that he hasn’t conducted interviews about his desire to play in the NFL again, and that’s because he didn’t want to feed the narrative that there would be a “media circus” if a team signed him . Privately, however, Kaepernick has turned to teams for coaching. The only one he received was from the Seattle Seahawks in 2017.
“No team invited me to practice,” said Kaepernick. “No team brought me here for an opportunity. I had that one meeting with Seattle in 2017. And from that, Pete Carroll was like, ‘Hey, he’s a starter; we have a starter.’ And it went on from there. But they don’t have a starter at the moment,” he said.
Kaepernick said he ultimately wanted to win a championship after coming so close to the 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII but was “a game away” in a 34-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
“I have to finish this. My mentality isn’t just like, ‘Oh, I want to compete.’ No, I want to win a championship,” he said.