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Whereas recounting the season the place he and Colin Kaepernick have been teammates, and when Kaepernick took the San Francisco 49ers to the Tremendous Bowl, Washington Soccer Group quarterback Alex Smith stated on a latest podcast he struggles to know how his former backup is not within the NFL. The dialog the place this got here up occurred on 10 Questions With Kyle Brandt.
“It nonetheless does not make sense,” Smith stated. “The run that he went on the final yr we have been collectively after we went to the Tremendous Bowl…[it] was so loopy to observe. Actually one of many historic runs in soccer to see what he was doing. He nonetheless holds information from that point interval. Actually particular. It is loopy that quick ahead to solely a few years after that he is out of the league. You could not even grasp it. You could not perceive it.”
Smith’s confusion in that quote stems from seeing an extremely gifted quarterback take a workforce to a championship recreation and by some means that potential not being sufficient to maintain him within the NFL for years to come back. After all, there is a fairly clear timeline of occasions that explains why he by no means made it again to a league roster.
In 2016, Kaepernick famously took a knee through the enjoying of the nationwide anthem as an act of protest in opposition to systemic racism and police brutality in america. This protest made many who have been fast to dismiss his actions as disrespect in direction of a track and flag fairly upset — a gaggle that apparently included the eventual president, Donald Trump — and when his contract with San Francisco ran out, he by no means obtained an actual alternative to return to the league.
Kaepernick ultimately filed a lawsuit in opposition to the NFL, together with Eric Reid, claiming that homeowners colluded in opposition to the 2 distinguished protesting gamers to not signal them onto rosters. The 2 sides settled in February 2019.
To Smith’s credit score, he does truly perceive that there have been causes past soccer that Kaepernick was saved out of the league.
“I feel it is so tragic it. I feel he was forward of his time, actually, making an attempt to name out social injustice, particularly round police reform,” Smith stated of Kaepernick. “The nation wasn’t prepared. No one was prepared for it, and he is sitting there making an attempt to inform everyone by means of a very peaceable method about a few of the issues occurring on this nation that had been occurring for a very long time.
“To see the backlash that occurred, yeah, it hurts. The nation wasn’t prepared for it and he suffered the repercussions along with his job after which how courageous he was. He misplaced his livelihood.”
You’ll be able to watch everything of the dialog down under.
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