More and more people, particularly those with NFL lineage, seem to be chiming in on the situation surrounding former 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Many, like the Seahawks’ Michael Bennett, feel that Kaepernick has been blackballed due to the movement of peaceful protest he began last season against racial injustice faced by people of color. Others have chimed in to make assertions ranging from “he’s lazy” to “he needs to state that he wants to play.”
Colin Kaepernick Blackball Quotes
Excuse after excuse have been piled onto the conversation, which has continued to both escalate and circumvent the truthful reality of the situation.
Need proof? The Seahawks brought him in for a tryout and then, after Coach Pete Carroll stated “I think he’s a starter”, passed on signing him in favor of Austin Davis, a quarterback who didn’t even play in 2016. But he’s not being blackballed right?
Well on Tuesday one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Joe Montana, imparted his knowledge on the situation in an interview with For The Win, claiming he knows that the real reason why Kaep doesn’t have a job under center is because of his style of play.
That style of quarterback, everybody thought was going to take over the NFL, said Montana. You look at guys who had success in college, that only had success one year. Usually those guys, the next year, its very difficult on them.”
The league has figured out how to defend it, Montana continued. If Im playing defense, I want the quarterback to run so I can hit him. In the pocket, you cant really hit him. So you look at Tim Tebow hes a great guy, does a lot of great things. But when you complete 40-something percent of your passes, even in the low 50’s, youre not going to make it.
So now it’s because of his style of play?
Funny how his style of play got the 49ers to within a few yards of a Super Bowl victory. Funny how his style of play yielded an average completion rate of 59.8% over six years. Hilarious that he threw for 2,241 yards with 16 TDs and a completion percentage of 59.2% last season and was still passed over by the Seahawks for a quarterback who threw for exactly nothing last season.
With these numbers in mind, it’s hard for proponents to validate Montana’s theory. So it has to be something else. Could it be the movement he started, which resulted in cameras focusing on him instead of the field where the flag was flying, fueling the hatred and backlash he continues to face?
Im sure there are some distraction issues, Montana replied to FTW. When we were playing with Bill Walsh, if you were a distraction, he didnt care how good you were, if you didnt mix in with the team, you werent there very long.
Yet even his own coach, Chip Kelly, refuted the claim that Kaepernick was a distraction, stating “At the beginning of the year, he made a stance in terms of what he believes is right. We recognized and supported his ability to do that. But he never brought that into the locker room.”
Joe Cool has joined the debate and has been proven wrong on two statements. So who’s next?
