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Former NFL quarterback was bad, not blacklisted

Colin Kapernick had two good seasons, overrated, that’s why he’s done
13459960_web1_170704-WPF-M-editor-Stu-Salkeld

If you’re a regular online reader of The Wetaskiwin Pipestone Flyer website, you probably noticed a few CP wire stories about former NFL quarterback Colin Kapernick signing some kind of SJW publicity deal with shoemaker Nike. The gist of the deal is something akin to “Racism didn’t stop me, I stuck up for minorities, I lost my job but I’m morally valid, Nike is too.”

Kapernick, you may recall, was instrumental in the “take a knee” campaign that ran through American pro sports last year. According to Kapernick, American society is geared towards keeping African Americans down and to point out this problem, he kneeled during the American national anthem. Personally, I don’t believe this is true. If it was, an African American would not have been president.

In the weeks and months after, the take a knee campaign became controversial because many felt that showing disrespect to the American anthem did nothing to stop racism in the country. It became so controversial that, according to Kapernick and his new Nike campaign, he lost his job in the NFL and was blacklisted by NFL owners for lack of patriotism.

I will submit to you that Kapernick did lose his job as an NFL quarterback, but it had nothing to do with revenge over the take a knee campaign. Instead, Kapernick is a bad quarterback who was overrated to begin with. Since NFL owners tend to be a group of shallow jerks who overlook just about anything in order to win games, the only thing that matters is the “win” column of the box scores.

First of all, the insinuation that NFL owners wanted revenge for bad behaviour is moronic. You can look at former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick who for years had serious integrity issues surrounding his name. It was said Vick exploited women in sleazy ways that don’t need to be explained here, and he was later convicted for his part in an illegal dog fighting operation linked to gambling. Vick served time in jail, then went straight back into the NFL in 2009 to play for the Philadelphia Eagles. He retired in 2016. This horrible person didn’t deserve to play in pro sports again after the dog fighting conviction, but all NFL teams cared about was the possibility he could notch wins for them.

You can also look at quarterback Johnny Manziel, another horrible person who, judging by his actions, has never heard the word “integrity” in his life. He was drafted in the first round of the 2014 NFL drafted and given an insane amount of money, despite never playing a minute of pro football. He was cut from the Cleveland Browns roster in 2015, plagued by controversies and incompetence. He performed awfully on-field, and obviously spent little or not time preparing for game day. His career NFL stats are 7-7 win-loss, 1,674 passing yards and NO touchdowns. And to this day there’s still talk about giving this dud another NFL tryout.

Let’s look at Kapernick’s stats. As of 2016 Kapernick had a 72-30 touchdown to interception ratio, 12,271passing yards and a completion percentage of 59.8. Generally, a starting NFL quarterback should have a completion percentage between 60 and 65 per cent; lower than that means not enough third down conversions and subsequent loss of time of possession. Even most of Kapernick’s touchdowns came over only two seasons.

Rational readers can see by the examples of Vick and Manziel the NFL owners will accept just about anyone who they think can win games, no matter how criminal, sleazy, lazy or incompetent they are.

Kapernick was at best an average quarterback, below average some seasons, lacking in consistency.

And that’s why he’s done.

Stu Salkeld is editor of The Wetaskiwin Pipestone Flyer and writes a regular column for the paper.