Colin Kaepernick does not "deserve a job" in the NFL. Why? Because no one does. That's not how these things work.
Every team in the NFL has to weigh its needs and its goals against the likely result of bringing in a given player. And every team has its own ideas of what it needs and what it doesn't need - and why.
Let me use the example of my own favorite team, which is the Minnesota Vikings. Sam Bradford is our starting quarterback. That's not in question. We'd like to see one-time starter Teddy Bridgewater rebound from the horrible injury he suffered last season and at least be available as the backup, but it this point you can't be confident that will happen.
So during the offseason, after parting ways with 2016 backup quarterback Shaun Hill, the Vikings needed a new backup. They opted for former Rams quarterback Case Keenum.
Now some will say: Why not Colin Kaepernick? They'll point to ratings and track records that suggest, at least on paper, Kaepernick is a better quarterback than Keenum. And they'll claim that the decision to sign Keenum must therefore be a) racist; and b) part of a league effort to "blackball" Kaepernick for his slander of police officers last year.
But all the football logic says Keenum is the better choice. Keenum will accept that he's the backup and sign for backup money. Keenum's style of play is a better fit for the Vikings' offense, and is more similar to Bradford's, whereas Kaepernick's scramble-out-of-the pocket style would require a whole new set of plays to be drawn up for a guy who isn't even your starter.
Also: If Keenum rarely plays - or never plays, which can happen when you're the backup - the Vikings won't have to deal with social and political activists accusing them of racism for keeping him on the bench. Keenum is just a football player. Kaepernick has become a cause, and any team that decides to add him to its roster now has to deal with the followers of the cause, who will not accept any decision made for football reasons that might be averse to their guy.
Now, you might say, fine, but the Vikings are just one team. There are 31 other teams and surely one of them has a place for Colin Kaepernick.
Actually, there are 31 other teams who are all making the same calculations the Vikings are making, based on their own needs and circumstances. And each of those teams, having weighed the pros and cons of Colin Kaepernick, has made a self-interested decision that it would be better off without him.
While every team will have its own different set of dynamics, I can guarantee you one thought that every one of those 32 teams had: Sign Colin Kaepernick, and now you're under constant scrutiny from people like this:
No football organization wants to draw the attention of these people, not to mention all the sympathetic media who would be a constant presence. They would be looking for stories every day about Kaepernick the social cause as much as Kaepernick (or his team) as a football story. And they would serve as a constant annoying conduit between activists like those in the video above and the public.
Why isn't Colin starting?
Why didn't you pay him as much as your white starting quarterback? Are you racist?
When that white offensive lineman failed to block that pass rusher and Colin got sacked, was that racist?
Do you support Colin not standing for the anthem? Will you, his black teammate, also refuse to stand? Are you, his white teammate, a racist for standing for the anthem?
Do all the players on the team agree with Colin that the police are racist brutes? If not, are they racist?
No NFL coach or general manager wants to deal with this nonsense, and if Kaepernick was on the team it would be constant. It would distract players trying to practice. It would distract coaches trying to win football games. It would become a constant headache for the team's PR people.
And there is also the matter of whether football is really Kaepernick's first priority, as oppose to social activism. Playing football at the level of the NFL is an extremely difficult endeavor, and it requires those who attempt it to work incredibly hard at it all the time. One of the criticisms of Kaepernick as a player (before all his activism started) was that he hadn't worked hard enough to improve after his very strong first two seasons. Other teams had figured out his weaknesses and Kaepernick hadn't progressed or made adjustments.
Why should a team think he would do that now when he gives every appearance of having other priorities in his life, and seems to only want to use football as a platform for his activism? Why not just sign a backup quarterback whose sole priority is football, and avoid all the garbage that comes along with signing a guy like this?
And if you had any doubt that this is how NFL teams see it, just watch that video again, and ask yourself: If you were running an NFL team, would you want the attention of people like this on every move you make? Especially concerning a guy who isn't even a starter on your team?
Which is why, in a delicious irony, the people who stage these demonstrations are probably as responsible as anyone for ensuring Colin Kaepernick doesn't play in the NFL. As "just a football player," Kaepernick is a borderline NFL talent and probably gets a look from someone in the preseason. As the social cause of the nation, with angry activists demanding his rights, he's way more trouble than he's worth.
If any of these people knew anything about football, maybe they would understand that.
