NFL--Michael Vick and Kaepernick

Kaepernick's not having a job has more to do with his lack of talent than anything else. He's not that good anymore.

Vick is a horrible individual. If I got convicted of a felony, I'd not have a job to come back to. I will not watch anything he commentates on.

Nor will I.

I have no problem with Vick.  He did his time, apologized, stayed out of trouble, and got a second chance to make himself a better person.  

Kaepernick could have had a job but he thinks he's too good to be a backup.  He was offered a one yr, $900,000 contract but turned it down, he want $9 to $10m and he's not worth that kind of money.  I didn't buy his reason for taking a knee and I don't buy his "I'll stand for the anthem if hired" line either.  People may have been able to overlook his kneeling but not the support of Castro and the police are pigs socks.  

These people protesting for him to get a job need to understand that the teams are privately owned.  The NFL can't force a team to hire him.  He made his choices and now he has to live with them.

This is pretty much how my dh explained the Kaepernick situation. People can claim it's politics all day long but the truth is he doesn't have the talent to support the controversy.

I don't know, I just find that with the last years of controversies, the violent acts against women, the concussions, the teams demanding more and bigger stadiums, the amount of money involved, I just don't have any interest in watching anymore.

I think that it is telling that people want to give Vick another chance but have nothing positive to say about Kaepernick. IMO, it is because people want him to remember his place as a black man. And that opinion is reinforced by seeing the comments on this subject, both on this thread and IRL and who is saying them. I believe that is why the poll that seems to be about politics would include questions about these two.

you realize that black people in this country can be oppressed regardless of their paycheck, right? James Blake, a professional tennis player with a net worth of 8 million dollars, was beaten by police in NYC. The police claim it was a case of mistaken identity, aka being in a rich neighborhood while black. Having money did not prevent this from happening.

In what way did CK not show compassion or citizenship?  Isn't that exactly what he was doing?  He was making a statement because of unjustices in our country.  And doing it in a peaceful way.  


Being in the military is not the only way to show that you are a fine citizen.  Nor does it automatically mean that you are a fine citizen, for that matter.  Just like you can't lump all rich, poor, brown, white, etc all in one characteristic, either.  

So are people supposed to say Kapernick is talented and worth more just to pacify people or to prevent others from assuming we think otherwise? The 49ers are a rival team, so I'm no stranger to Kap before or after his sitting. So now I should say Kap is great just so people don't think I 'want him to remember his place as a black man'. I'm sorry, that is messed up.

Kap sucks. His lack of being on a team has nothing to do with his kneeling but everything to do with his inability to maneuver in the pocket, make passes that every QB can toss, and his poor attitude. He was not respected by team mates. It was the other players (mainly defense) that lead the the 49ers as far as they went in after regular season play.

Vick? He did his time. He isnt playing and I am happy about that. I am sure he will be a good at his new position.

So the inside scoop from a couple of long time 49er players that played with Kap say he stopped being a leader. Part of it was his distraction with the Natl. anthem and he seem to get more and more adamant that this is the "cause" he needed to take.

The players around him got upset that he allowed this to "infiltrate" the team and distract them from what they were supposed to be out there doing. My understanding is that it really wasn't about his "cause" but just that he allowed the distraction to take over everything - his playing, his focus, his team player, his attitude, his leadership.

He played hurt - not everyone knows that - when he came back last year in addition to his "cause" he seemed unfocused and hesitant in the pocket - maybe part of his injury not emotionally ready to get back in and play. Thus - everyone thought he was losing his talent/skills.

I don't know if his not getting picked up is really about his talent vs. his "cause". But this I do know - when your QB is not willing to be the strong leader, not be a team player, he loses respect of his teammates, you are not going to be in sync and you aren't going to win. If you can't win - the NFL will pick apart every little reason why you shouldn't be playing. He just happened to add a very big distraction with his "cause' to give them even more reasons to not consider him.

We are creating a very dangerous "warrior class," an unintended result of the all volunteer force.

 i think that is the reason too. the NFL is not in the Morals business.  if you have the talent and the skills and you might be an occasional distraction, they will still bend every rule and cut very slack to get you on their team.  if you are fizzling out AND you are still a distraction to the team or the league, they will step over you like a dirty puddle on the sidewalk. 

Kaepernick: I don't have a problem him kneeling. I don't see it as really mixing his work & his social protest. It isn't disrupting the games. He was quietly kneeling at the sidelines. He wasn't making a spectacle of himself or being disruptive. I thought he was wrong when he was sitting like a bump on a log on a chair or a cooler during the anthem. But kneeling? Kneeling balances respect for what the flag means to some, while also demonstrating his beliefs that the country isn't living up to the values it claims to espouse.

Now, do I think kneeling is particularly effective form of protest/social action? No, I don't, at least long term. Yes, it's disruptive, but I don't think its disruptive enough, and I think it actually enables the racists by providing a distraction (the 'what is patriotism' debate) from the real conversations need to be having... like how the heck a good guy like Philando Castillo can be murdered in cold blood, in front of his family, by a police officer and that police officer gets away with it. So I think those of us who want to address systemic racism are actually letting the racists off too easily by going the route of these protests.

That said, I hate that the NFL is deliberately blacklisting him & trying to force teams to not sign him. That's immoral, and frankly, if players walked out over it, that would finally get us somewhere. The NFL NEEDS black players. If all of them said, "No," and told the NFL it needed to get involved in helping to dismantle racism, we'd finally get somewhere,because it would hit the white owners where it counts - in their pocketbooks. Same with the WNBA, and the NBA.

As to Michael Vick: He has paid his debt to society. He shouldn't be stopped from working. I didn't have an issue with him coming back to play quarterback, either. It isn't an employer's job to be the justice system when the conduct matter is a legal one. I don't even have an issue with players continuing to play while dealing with legal matters while the system is doing its job; I support innocent until proven guilt. Let the courts deal with off field behaviour.