Former NFL second-string quarterback Colin Kaepernick claims that an unnamed NFL insider told him he’s “still an elite player.”
This “news” was published by Sports Illustrated writer Gilberto Manzand who sat with the former NFL player and professional social justice warrior and delivered a purely flattering June 29 article.
The 35-year-old Kaepernick claims he still works out five or six days a week and claims that his quarterbacking skills are still as sharp as ever. But he noted he has not been offered a workout from an NFL team since the Raiders gave him a look in 2022 but passed on signing him.
Colin Kaepernick looks on during his NFL workout held at Charles R Drew high school on November 16, 2019, in Riverdale, Georgia. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
Kaepernick says he is still ready for a workout from any team that will offer, saying, “I’m going to keep pushing. I’m going to keep fighting for it because I know I can step on the field and play.”
But then he claimed that “someone” told him he is “still elite.”
“Every workout, every opportunity I’ve had to show that, the feedback has always been positive,” Kaepernick claimed. “Everything from, ‘He’s still an elite player,’ to ‘The workout was great; it was better than expected.’”
Writer Manzand did not bother to press the former player on just who told him he is “still an elite player.”
Kaepernick went on to claim he heard that the Raiders didn’t sign him because of his extremist, left-wing, anti-American politics.
Eli Harold #58, Colin Kaepernick #7 and Eric Reid #35 of the San Francisco 49ers kneel for the anthem prior to the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Levi Stadium on October 23, 2016, in Santa Clara, California. (Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images)
“I’ve heard a lot of excuses over the years,” Kaepernick told Manzand when explaining why he was snubbed by the Raiders, “but most of the time it ends up, ‘Oh, we’re going to see how the guys that we have do.’ With the Raiders’ situation last year, that was Stidham and Nick Mullens, which to me, you just compare résumés and capabilities, on top of the workout and the feedback, it’s like, ‘O.K., cool.’”
“Obviously, there’s something else within this decision. To me, that’s typically what it ends up being, or has been for the last seven years. So, I just want the opportunity to come in, show what I can do on the field. Judge me based upon that, not the political bias that you have,” Kaepernick insisted.
Meanwhile, Kaepernick continues to badmouth the NFL, calling it something akin to “slavery,” and blasting the U.S. as irredeemably racist with his latest book that claims blacks can’t succeed in America because it is a capitalist society — quite despite the millions he has made as a capitalist.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston