Colin Kaepernick is back in the limelight after writing a detailed letter to the New York Jets in order to get a place on their practice squad. Moreover, First Take’s analyst Stephen A. Smith wants the former San Fransisco 49ers QB to get another chance at the highest level. However, Stephen has immense clarity on the fact that no NFL teams would show interest in Colin after his long sabbatical.
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In a recent appearance on ‘First Take’, Stephen A. Smith reflected on Colin Kaepernick getting blackballed by the league. The renowned analyst called this an absolute crime. On the flip side, he admitted that the chances of Colin’s comeback, roughly after seven years to the highest level, are quite bleak.
Stephen A. Smith’s Vocal Advocacy and Realistic Take on Colin Kaepernick
Stephen A. Smith has been a vocal advocate for Colin Kaepernick’s return to the NFL. He expressed his strong views about the same on First Take. Smith firmly believes that Colin was unjustly dealt with by the NFL and he deserves another opportunity at the highest level.
“Colin Kaepernick deserves an opportunity to be back in the national football league. I believe that he was blackballed, I believe he was blackballed unfairly. I think it’s a damn disgrace and a crime that he has been kept out of the NFL for this long,” Smith stated.
However, Smith also expressed a sense of realism when it comes to Colin Kaepernick’s chances of making a comeback. While addressing the exact moment when Colin’s comeback chances got completely extinguished, Smith pointed to the 2019 moment when the formers 49ers QB had decided not to attend the NFL tryout.
.@stephenasmith shares his thoughts about Colin Kaepernick recently reaching out to the Jets: pic.twitter.com/K8f7s9AIkl
— First Take (@FirstTake) September 27, 2023
“In the end as of November 2019 when he had that tryout that the NFL organized, and he elected not to show up, I said on First Take the next morning ‘it is over’, ‘he is done’ and I stand by it,” Stephen stated. The analyst also added that after a lengthy time off the NFL landscape, Colin’s comeback appears to be even more difficult. Citing the skepticism, he reiterated several times that his take on the matter shall remain unchanged.
Colin Kaepernick’s 2019 Tryout: A Tale of Missed Opportunity
During the same First Take episode, Stephen A. Smith revealed that he was informed that Colin Kaepernick had a high likelihood of being a part of the NFL in 2019 due to the mounting pressure on the NFL to give him one more chance. However, all hopes were doused when the QB failed to show up.
“I personally was told at the time that if the brother showed up to the workout, because of the public pressure being brought down upon the league and the fact that we were all watching, he would have had to throw the football in the stands to not have a job in two weeks that was a quote that I received,” Stephen said.
Upon looking at all this, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that the chances of Colin making an NFL comeback, that too with the New York Jets, are bleak at the moment.
