Making A Comeback? The Rise and Fall of Colin Kaepernick’s Football career
Making A Comeback? The Rise and Fall of Colin Kaepernick’s Football career
After being drafted in 2011 by the San Francisco 49ers out of the University of Nevada a young Colin Kaepernick started his career behind Alex Smith and learned a lot from former head coach Jim Harbaugh. After Alex Smith went down with a concussion in 2012 Kaepernick got a chance to prove himself and he made quite an impression. The young quarterback took the team to the Super Bowl just losing the championship to Ray Lewis and the Ravens.
In 2013, he took over the starting role and had a really good season throwing for 3,197 yards and 21 touchdowns. Along with an incredible defense, he led the team to a 12-4 record in the regular season. He continued his impressive play through the playoffs taking the team to the NFC Championship Game. After that season however, things really started to go downhill for Colin Kaepernick. His fall from grace started the next season when the team went 8-8 and not making the playoffs after going to the NFC title game the year before. Things only got worse after that season. In 2015, after starting the season 2-6, it started to become clear that Colin Kaepernick was losing the locker room. In a report by Chris Burke of Sports Illustrated, it stated that “Kap was on an island in the Locker Room”. His reclusive behavior alienated him from his team and many stars on that team left during free agency such as running back Frank Gore and Offensive lineman Mike Iupati. This left people to wonder why this was happening after seeing so much success. Colin Kaepernick was benched for Blaine Gabbert during the 2015 season and from there the rest is history.
Some non-football issues that due to their controversial nature I won’t be discussing in this article came around and eventually, the once bright star found himself out of work and it has been that way since 2016. Ever since then, Colin Kaepernick has sued the NFL for collusion alongside safety Eric Reed and was paid less than 10 million dollars. After all of this stuff, Colin Kaepernick is back in the headlines claiming it’s time for him to rejoin the NFL. He has been posting intense workout videos claiming he is “still ready for the NFL.'' I don’t work for the NFL but in the real world, I would say it’s very hard to sue your employer then be welcomed back in to work. Now there are some teams that may possibly benefit from Colin Kaepernick’s skill set but are they ready for the baggage and mixed publicity that comes with it.
-By: Ryan Johnson