Man, this has been a long time coming. Colin Kaepernick is holding an open tryout this Saturday for pro teams and guess who’s attending? Yup, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Kaepernick has been out of the NFL since the 2016-17 season, following his protests against police brutality during the national anthem. He’s since filed a grievance against the NFL because of an “alleged” (I’m putting alleged in quotes because it was obviously happening) collusion by the NFL owners to keep Kap out of the league, and settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
The open tryout, taking place in Atlanta this Saturday (the day before 24 of the 32 teams’ week 11 games), is hosted by the NFL and will be attended by at least 13 teams so far. A videotape of the workout will be sent to all 32 teams. Many fans and writers have expressed their confusion at the purpose of this tryout, with some calling it a “PR stunt.”
So where do the Bucs fit in all of this? I’m not really sure. Jameis Winston is bad, but Kaepernick is not a long-term solution. I love the guy and what he represents, but he’s been out of the game for three years and is 32. He’d be a great backup, but other teams at the tryout have far more pressing quarterback needs, and he might take those jobs if he feels he can start immediately.
For example, look at the Steelers and their MAGA-hat-wearing QB Mason Rudolph. They lost to the Browns this past Thursday, and Rudolph threw four interceptions (and got whacked in the head with his own helmet by Browns’ defensive end Myles Garrett, but that’s another story). The Steelers’ original starting QB, accused rapist Ben Rothlisberger, got injured in the first game of the season against the Patriots, and is out for the remainder of the season. Couldn’t have happened to a better guy, am I right?
But back to Tampa. They have Jameis, and he “led” them to victory (he threw two more interceptions) against the Arizona Cardinals this past week. He looked terrible, but they won, I guess.
Besides, who knows if the Bucs will be willing to take a big risk on a player with so much “baggage.” I mean, Winston might have raped that poor girl at FSU and he allegedly sexually assaulted that Uber driver, but other than that Winston is such a great dude.
But hey, give the Bucs credit. At least they’re showing up to the tryout. It’s not totally out of the question for them to sign Kap, but Vegas has the Bengals with the best odds to sign him (I think mostly because the Bengals haven’t even won a game yet, so what do they have to lose?).
We’ll see.
This article appears in Nov 14-21, 2019.