ESPN hosts Stephen A. Smith, Max Kellerman and Molly Qerim were joined by NFL great Michael Irvin and Seattle Seahawks star Richard Sherman on Friday, March 24, and question as to whether Colin Kaepernick is being "blackballed" by the league came up for discussion. And as might have been expected, based on how outspoken he's been on social issues in the past, it was Sherman who was most unwavering in calling it how he sees it, stating unapologetically, that Kaepernick's trouble finding a team "has nothing to do with football."
Although Smith and Kellerman have approached teams' reluctance to sign Kaepernick with contrasting tones, both have pretty much acknowledged that they believe the predicament he appears to be in is in some part due to his season-long National Anthem protest. The more they elaborated on their own perspectives of the quagmire, the more it became clear that Irvin and Sherman agree as well, that Kaepernick is worthy of being picked up. Irvin stopped short of characterizing Kaepernick as having been blackballed during the segment, saying that he's going to give it more time to see how the matter continues to unfold. Sherman, on the other hand, posed that the timetable for someone of his caliber to earn the attention of a quarterback-needy team has dragged noticeably, albeit it may be difficult to tell.
"It's difficult to see, because he's played at such a high level, and you see guys, quarterbacks, who have never played at a high level being signed by teams. So it's difficult to understand. Obviously, he's going to be in a backup role at this point. But you see quarterbacks, I mean, there was a year Matt Schaub had a pretty rough year and got signed the next year. So it has nothing to do with football. You can see that," Sherman said.
Although less than impressive play callers as Mike Glennon, Mark Sanchez, Josh McCown and Nick Foles have been snatched up, some of the off-season's best talent at the position does still remain on the market, with Tony Romo and Jay Cutler still shopping for deals. Kellerman took such into consideration when posing the theory that teams are perhaps waiting to see if they can land one of those guys, before going for Kaepernick, who still has skills by the assessment of most professionals, but has declined over the past couple of seasons. Still, Sherman was unconvinced that someone as young and fast, with the kind of winning experience he enjoyed only several years back, would be so overlooked were it not for the stigma his politics carry.
"At his best, he would be a starter on probably 20 of the teams in this league," said Sherman. "But you're telling me that you're going to let other guys, you're going to pick up some of these other guys, I’m not gonna say no names, but you’re gonna pick up some of these other guys and tell me that they're starters?"
Source: youtube.com
