Massachusetts congressman Joe Kennedy III made an excellent point Tuesday on Twitter. He asked the NFL to apologize to quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and called for the New England Patriots to sign him.
Kaepernick has been out of the league since 2016. He was the leader of the national anthem protests, which were an effort to start a conversation about racial injustice and police brutality in America. The result seemed to be that NFL owners blackballed him from the league. In response to Kaepernick’s protests, the NFL suggested in the rulebook that players stand during the anthem.
With the death of George Floyd, the conversation about racial injustice has been ubiquitous. It’s time for the NFL to end their holdout with Kaepernick. As Kennedy and The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn pointed out, the Patriots are indeed a good match for the 32-year-old quarterback.
The NFL should apologize to Colin Kaepernick and the Patriots should sign him.
— Rep. Joe Kennedy III (@RepJoeKennedy) June 9, 2020
Kaepernick finished the 2016 season with 2,241 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and four interceptions with a 58% completion rate in 12 appearances. The 49ers also went 1-11 in games he started. It wasn’t pretty, but it wasn’t so ugly that the NFL should be ignoring him entirely. Brian Hoyer, who is slated to work as the Patriots’ backup, has lost his last 10 starts. Kaepernick has Super Bowl experience. His ability to protect the football should be a quality that Bill Belichick admires. Kaepernick may not be quite as mobile as he once was, but he’s probably on par with the Patriots’ projected starter, Jarrett Stidham.
And that’s another good reason why New England should check out Kaepernick. There are plenty of parallels between what Kaepernick did in the NFL and what Stidham projects to do. If Stidham’s projection doesn’t meet reality, then the Patriots could turn to Kaepernick as the replacement starter without having to change their offense in a big way.
Yes, Kaepernick’s press conferences will likely stray beyond the topics of football. That’s OK. In fact, judging from the state of our nation, that’s more important than ever. New England operated functionally amid the media mania which came with Tim Tebow, Josh Gordon and Antonio Brown. The Patriots are no strangers to drawing international attention — they’re built to handle the increased coverage which might come with signing Kaepernick.
The only downside for New England is that they may be looking at a shortened training camp and preseason, which will hinder the readiness of whichever quarterback wins the starting job. If they’re splitting starting reps among three quarterbacks, then they may have even more issues with getting the top quarterback up to speed. But Belichick has dealt with much bigger problems than having too many talented arms at quarterback. That seems like a decent problem to have. It worked out just fine in 2016, when the Patriots rostered Tom Brady, Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett.
Belichick has insisted throughout his career that he wants nothing more than to do what’s best for the team. It’s easy to see why adding Kaepernick as a source of competition for Stidham and Hoyer is a decision that falls in line with that best-for-the-team philosophy.
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