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Colin Kaepernick has not played a down of football since the 2016 season with the San Francisco 49ers, but it didn’t stop some NFL fans from clamoring for his return to the gridiron.
Reports indicated Monday that Philip Rivers was going to work out for the Indianapolis Colts as the AFC South team’s season spirals out of control with all three of their quarterbacks hurt. Rivers played the 2020 season with the Colts and retired after that. He recently turned 44 and became a grandfather.
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Eli Harold #58, Colin Kaepernick #7 and Eric Reid #35 of the San Francisco 49ers kneel in protest on the sideline, during the anthem, prior to the game against the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field on Oct. 16, 2016 in Orchard Park, New York. (Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images)
NFL fans suggested on social media that the Colts should give Kaepernick a look despite the quarterback being out of the league for nearly 10 years.
He has still held out hope that he would get another NFL shot, and his girlfriend made it clear as recently as August.
“All day, every day,” Nessa Diab told TMZ Sports over the weekend. “Nothing’s changed.”
She added that “of course” he still wants to play.
“It’s all up to the teams if they’ll let him,” she said.
Kaepernick, 38, last suited up for the during the 2016 season when he created a firestorm protesting racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem. He was 17-of-22 for 215 yards and a touchdown in his last NFL game against the Seattle Seahawks.
Since then, teams have not been interested in Kaepernick enough to bring him onto their roster – even in training camp.
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Colin Kaepernick #7 of the San Francisco 49ers drops back to pass against the Seattle Seahawks during the second quarter of their NFL football game at Levi’s Stadium on Jan. 1, 2017 in Santa Clara, California. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
Kaepernick has also built up his social activist platform through Know Your Rights Camp and Kaepernick Publishing. He has compared the NFL Draft to a slave auction, called for the abolition of law enforcement and suggested the NFL has not taken meaningful steps to address social injustices.
Late last year, he admitted to NPR that he misses football and was still training in case a team called.
“I will forever miss it,” he told the outlet at the time while promoting his new children’s book “We Are Free You & Me.” “And I continue to train for it.
“At the end of the day, I don’t want to be in a position where I look back and have to question whether or not I gave it my all to try to pursue that. I will make sure that the reason I’m not playing is not because of my work ethic or commitment, but because I was held out of it.”
Kaepernick told Sky Sports he still believed he could lead a team to a Super Bowl.
“We’re still training, still pushing,” he said. “So hopefully. We’ve just got to get one of these team owners to open up.
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“It’s something I’ve trained my whole life for, so to be able to step back on the field, I think that would be a major moment, a major accomplishment for me. I think I could bring a lot to a team and help them win a championship.”
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