Donald Trump may be responsible for NFL teams not signing Colin Kaepernick, analyst claims
Colin Kaepernick has been a free agent and contractless since the end of the 2016 season, and it has now been suggested that no team is willing to sign him up because of President Donald Trump.
The claim was made by ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith during a segment on Hot 97's 'Ebro in the Morning,' where he suggested that the owners of the NFL teams feared losing out on billions of dollars if they signed Kaepernick because it would not sit well with Trump.
MEAWW earlier reported that multiple NFL teams were hunting for game-changing quarterbacks in the wake of injuries to their existing players, and Kaepernick had expressed an active interest in pursuing those vacancies. It was also reported that that his controversial reputation might get in the way of him being taken on by any team.
Trump has publicly criticized the former 49ers quarterback and the many others who took after him, for kneeling during the national anthem as a form of protest against racial injustice and systematic oppression of African-Americans and people of color in the country and said that the NFL should 'fire' those who did so.
While those comments were made in 2017, the NFL is currently looking to get involved with gambling in many states, a move that will require the approval of not only Congress, but also Trump, and Smith believes the president will not sign off on it if Kaepernick is on the roster of any of the teams.
"Why am I bringing that up? Remember that whole gambling stuff that was taking place? How the NFL was going to get involved with it because the states were gonna; sports gambling was going to be legalized in certain states? Right? Remember that whole ordeal?"
"Well, what was going on on Capitol Hill is that the owners, the NFL owners were trying to get involved with that, where they were trying to get a percentage of the bets and all of this other stuff that was going on," he explained. "So what happens is, we’re talking billions. Well, guess what? In order for that to happen, you need Congress to sign off on it and you need the President to sign off on it. What you don’t need is the President turning his attention towards you and going against you just because he doesn’t like you."
Social media didn't seem all too surprised by Smith's claims, with many stating that it wasn't unlike Trump to hold a grudge.
"This is extraordinarily obvious," one user wrote. "Every NFL owner knows that if they allow Kap on their team they are going to be excoriated by Trump."
"I agree!" another user tweeted. "Time for Colin Kaepernick to speak up or else wait till trump leaves WH. Owners are in Trump's pocket. Main reason Kaep not playing! [sic]".