Kap’s schtick is a joke to me these days.
I was originally on the side of freedom of expression and I have general sympathy for people subject to police discrimination. Even though I do think it is over politicized and blown out of proportion I do realize it exists and understand the plight of a certain demographic of people. I have been at the mercy of policemen before and it is a helpless feeling.
Having said that:
1) I can’t convince myself that not showing up for this tryout was anything but a publicity stunt created by his legal team to throw more shade on the NFL.
2) Is there another industry or career out there where an employee can act like this and not be punished in some way or another? The only industry I can think of where this type of behavior would be tolerated is the music industry.
In short, I don’t blame the NFL much, if at all, here.
The NFL did just about everything they could to try and put him in a legal bind.
-Scheduled the workout unbeknownst to him, and gave him 2 hours to accept it.
-Put the workout on a Saturday instead of the more usual Tuesday, and would not even re-schedule it for the following Saturday to give more teams time to decide to send someone or not.
-Would now allow independent film crew to document it
-Would not release which teams would participate/who was coming from those teams
-Wanted him to sign a completely different liability waiver than any other Pro Day/Tryout participant, one that specifically revoked his right to further litigation (this is the big one).
Tim f***ing Tebow got 4 chances at an NFL roster because he knelt/kneels for Jesus, but Kaepernick can't get a
workout without all these hoops because he knelt/kneels--silently--in protest of racial injustice. If Kaepernick signed today with anyone, I'm sure there
would be a media circus around it...but it would be short-lived. I'll f***ing harp on Tebow getting 4 chances at the NFL all day because he brought a pretty much unprecedented amount of media circus wherever he went.
The NFL can go f*** themselves with this obvious charade.