Colin Kaepernick has many projects going on, including his new Netflix series that will premiere at the end of this month. But the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback is ready to get back into the NFL despite being away from the league for five years. Kaepernick recently spoke to Ebony about his career and said he’s still training for an NFL comeback.
“Absolutely. I am still up at 5 a.m. training five, six days a week making sure I’m prepared to take a team to a Super Bowl again,” Kaepernick said, per Yahoo Sports. “That’s not something I will ever let go of, regardless of the actions of 32 teams and their partners to deny me employment. The same way I was persistent in high school is the same way I’m gonna be persistent here.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“And you’re gonna have to continue to deny me and do so in a public way. And you’re gonna expose yourself by that, but it won’t be because I’m not ready or not prepared.” Kaepernick last played in the NFL in 2016, which is the same year he began kneeling during the national anthem. Kaepernick opted out of his contract as the 49ers planned to release him since they hired Kyle Shanahan as the head coach. Kaepernick went unsigned throughout the 2017 season, leading to allegations that he was being blackballed because of him protesting during the national anthem.
Earlier this year, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll talked about how they brought Kapernick in for a workout in 2017 but didn’t offer him a contract. He revealed why he didn’t Kaepernick, saying that “I held him in such a high regard, I didn’t see him as a backup quarterback and I didn’t want to put him in that situation with [Russell Wilson].” And when asked about signing him for the 2021 season, Carroll said, “We’re kind of set up right now, so football-wise, it doesn’t seem to fit us like I said. But there’s a lot of time here. We’ll see what happens.”
In 2019, Kaepernick was scheduled to have a tryout for all 32 NFL teams in Atlanta. Kaepernick did go to Atlanta, but instead of working out for the teams at the Atlanta Falcons facility, he went to a high school in the Atlanta area and held a public workout. No contract offers came after Kaepernick’s workout session.
