The New York Giants have a substantial amount of problems, but one area they are unlikely to address any time soon is the quarterback position, where rookie Daniel Jones seems to have a good handle on things (except the football, that is).
For that reason, it seems unlikely the team will send representatives to Atlanta on Saturday where controversial quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, is currently slated to hold a private workout and interview session.
That is, of course, if Kap and his management go through with it.
Although Kaepernick has tweeted his excitement about the workout, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports there is an ongoing disagreement over the date of the workout, with Kaps’ representatives pushing the NFL to hold the workout on Tuesday of the following week or a later Saturday.
As Colin Kaepernick tweeted, the NFL didn't inform his reps of Saturday's workout in Atlanta until this morning. Kaepernick's reps asked for workout to be on a Tuesday, the day of most workouts, but NFL said it had to be this Saturday. He asked for a later Saturday; NFL said no.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 13, 2019
It seems more than a little curious that Kaepernick & Co. would want to wait even longer for an opportunity to return to the NFL, but that’s for another website and set of authors to debate.
The question is, with an invitation extending to all 32 teams, will the Giants attend if Kaepernick actually goes through with the workout and doesn’t mysteriously bail because things aren’t exactly the way he wants them?
The belief is that Kaepernick still wants to be a highly-paid starter, and that’s not going to happen with the Giants even with their need for a quality backup going into 2020. And even if he resigned himself to being a back-up, it seems unlikely that co-owner John Mara would sign off on Kap in The Big Apple.
“All my years being in the league, I never received more emotional mail from people than I did about [the national anthem protests],” Mara told Jenny Vrentas of MMQB in 2018, adding that the team never discussed signing Kaepernick. “‘If any of your players ever do that, we are never coming to another Giants game.’ It wasn’t one or two letters. It was a lot. It’s an emotional, emotional issue for a lot of people, more so than any other issue I’ve run into.”
Kaepernick caused a country-wide stir with his decision to kneel for the national anthem in protest of what he perceived to be racial injustices, which is a trend that exists in the sports world to this day.
But in Mara’s mind, it would be way too much of a distraction for a player who likely wouldn’t see the field.
Still, several current and former Giants have spoken out in favor of signing Kaepernick, including Michael Strahan, Saquon Barkley and Antoine Bethea.
The support in the Giants’ locker room aside, don’t expect Big Blue to send a representative to Atlanta on Saturday because there isn’t a place on the roster for Kaepernick and no logical potential use for an aging backup quarterback who has been out of the league for years after opting out of his San Francisco 49ers contract and turning down the Denver Broncos.
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