Two guys sitting in a studio opining on all thing sports-related doesn't sound like very interesting television to me, especially when there's a tendency for their sports opinions to bleed over into politics. That's why I've never been interested in watching ESPN's Pardon the Interruption. That's all it is. And when Fox Sports launched The Undisputed with Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe, it promised to be little more than the same thing with two different people.
That's exactly what it's turned out to be, except that the two hosts (particularly Sharpe) have decided to use the show as the venue for a crusade of sorts on behalf of free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Right. That Colin Kaepernick. The one who slandered America's police officers last season by accusing them of being a bunch of racist pigs looking to kill black people just because they were black people - in the process helping to inspire ambushes that got several cops killed. This is the guy who's nine parts social justice warrior and one part mediocre football player, and NFL teams have decided this season that they'd rather sign guys who are fully committed to the game and aren't going to attract a lot of unwanted media attention while failing to provide enough productivity to be anywhere near worth it.
That's why not signing Colin Kaepernick is a perfectly rational decision for all 32 NFL teams. But the news media have become obsessed with Kaepernick's status, and many of them are covering his unsigned status on a daily basis as if it's one of the biggest stories in the game. And a few - none more so than Mr. Sharpe - have taken on the pursuit of a Kaepernick signing as a crusade.
This means that every time an NFL team signs a backup quarterback who is not named Colin Kaepernick, the SJW outrage machine starts anew as we're told how unjust it is that this guy or that guy got signed and Kaepernick is still without a team. The latest came yesterday when former Bears quarterback Jay Cutler came out of retirement to sign a one-year, $10 million deal with the Dolphins. The Dolphins had to make a quick move because it appears their incumbent starting quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, is lost for the season to an injury.
And this move, predictably, drew the ire of Shannon Sharpe, also known as the self-appointed publicity agent for Colin Kaepernick.
Now I'm the last person who's going to tout the virtues of Jay Cutler as an NFL quarterback. I will tell you that as a Vikings fan, I loved it when Cutler was the quarterback of the division rival Bears. And I'll miss playing against him twice a year. It was great.
But this whole story that goes on and on is not about any given quarterback's merit on the field vs. Kaepernick's. It's about feeding the narrative that Kaepernick is only without a job because a) he became an activist; and b) his activism was on behalf of black people and against racist police. Apparently this means the owners hate black people, which will come as a surprise to most of them when you see how many they are paying millions of dollars.
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This has been a left-wing cause celebre for a while now, and Sharpe is just riding the bandwagon.
Now, if you want to argue that Kaepernick deserves an NFL contract, that's fine. Make that argument. But it's beyond absurd to make this guy the number one story in the NFL when he isn't even in the NFL. And if he was, he'd would either be a backup or a low-ranked starter on a bad team. That's what he was last year with the 49ers, and that's why no teams are interested in him this year.
As I've said before, some team might be willing to take a look at Kaepernick in camp if not for the fact that with Kaepernick comes the circus and hoopla of all the media attention that will accompany him. For a superstar player, some team might decide it's worth it to put up with the distraction. For a guy who's just borderline good enough to be in the NFL? No way.
And in that respect, people like Sharpe might be making it even harder for Kaepernick to get a shot somewhere. Last week the Ravens reportedly considered signing Kaepernick, but ultimately decided not to. Sharpe got so upset on The Undisputed, he looked like he was going to lose his mind. He insisted on dissecting every detail of the Ravens' decision-making process to determine if they had been fair to Kaepernick. Who wants to face that kind of scrutiny when you're making a decision about whether to keep a guy on your roster who is probably third string at best? No one. But that's what's going to happen if you give Colin Kaepernick a shot. You'd better keep him, or the media will descend on you like flies on you-know-what.
No one wants to deal with that, and a guy of Kaepernick's skill level is certainly not worth it.
So congratulations, Shannon Sharpe and other social justice warriors crusading on Kaepernick's behalf. Aside from his sorry play in recent seasons, you are probably the biggest reason he remains out of the NFL.
