News broke yesterday that the NFL Seattle Seahawks allegedly postponed a workout for free-agent Colin Kaepernick because the former San Francisco Giants quarterback was unwilling to commit to stop kneeling during the national anthem in pre-game ceremonies.
The Seahawks have apparently signed former Washington Redskins QB Stephen Morris as a potential backup to Russell Wilson, but may still be interested in giving Kaepernick a tryout, ESPN reported.
Kaepernick was the first National Football League player to take a knee during “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a form of political activism to protest against police misconduct and racial injustice. Kap famously went unsigned in the 2017 season.
The latest chapter in the long-running Kaepernick controversy came up for discussion on Speak For Yourself , the hour-long program co-hosted by Jason Whitlock and another Colin, Colin Cowherd, which airs on the FS1 television channel at 5 p.m. Eastern time, Breitbart News reported.
Whitlock has been an outspoken critic of the national anthem protests, which he has argued has been co-opted by the social justice movement and the virtue-signaling liberal sports media .
On the TV show, Whitlock admonished outside influencers, rather than Colin Kaepernick himself, for the canceled Seahawks visit.
“I think that [Colin Kaepernick] is filled with so much bad advice, and so many people who have the appearance of being objective, or have the appearance of being on his side, who really aren’t on his side, are giving him so much bad advice that he has chosen the path of ‘I want to be a martyr and a victim, and be celebrated over Twitter rather than continue on as a professional athlete and try to rehabilitate my career.’”
Whitlock implied that the quarterback’s family history might be a factor in the ongoing NFL drama.
“If I were his age, and I has his background, having been given up for adoption by his mother, never knowing his father, being black and then raised by a white family in suburbia, I would be confused and very impressionable. If I had people telling me the thing you’re doing is the greatest thing in the world, If I had people like Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk beating the drum every day…just giving him absolutely the wrong advice, bad advice — all these people using Colin Kaepernick. I blame them, not Colin Kaepernick.”
Alluding to a documentary currently streaming on Netflix about a cult, Whitlock continued on the theme of Kaepernick being allegedly influenced by Twitter applause and clickbait.
“We think that a 30-year-old kid can’t get swayed and be moved by all this social media pressure that’s telling him everything he’s doing is the right thing, and ‘oh my God, you’re making this dramatic impact on America.’ He’s fallen for the okey-doke…Colin Kaepernick is being exploited by the Mike Florios of the world, the left-wing media, that’s using him for clicks and attention and giving him bad advice.”
As widely documented, the NFL lost a significant part of its market share last year. According to Whitlock, the on-field player activism hurt TV ratings and thus undermined the overall NFL business model.
Various reasons have been offered for the disappearing NFL viewer . These include oversaturation of games being telecast, non-competitive games, referees blowing calls that are game-changers, poor quality of play (especially in the quarterback position), player injuries, cord-cutting consumers gravitating toward Netflix and other forms of streaming entertainment instead of traditional TV, and the national anthem protests.
The contrarian Whitlock — the former Kansas City Star and Huffington Post columnist and Ball State University football player — rejoined Fox Sports after two tours of duty with ESPN. With views that seldom fit into either the left or right paradigm, although his social media foes would disagree with that premise, Whitlock has denounced what he considers the intrusion of progressive ideology into the sports culture.
In the same broadcast, Jason Whitlock recalled how the NBC business-casual dress code for players sitting on the bench during games who weren’t on the active roster at the particular time sparked controversy. The policy turned out to be a non-issue and a sound business decision, he noted.
Watch the Colin Kaepernick-related clip from Speak For Yourself with Jason Whitlock and draw your own conclusions.
“[Colin Kaepernick] is filled with so much bad advice… He has chosen the path of a martyr and a victim and to be celebrated on Twitter rather than continue on as a professional athlete.” — @WhitlockJason after Kaepernick’s meeting with the Seahawks was postponed pic.twitter.com/Fc06r81rTQ
— Speak (@SpeakOnFS1) April 12, 2018