Is the media Kapernicks biggest problem?

[JimmyinSD]

as i was driving today i was hearing espns non stop blathering of some organized gathering outside the NFL headquarters to protest the fact that kapernick doesnt have a job....( even though he voluntarily left his last job while under contract )..... so i start wondering what the hell all these do gooders are going to do if he suddenly gets a job.   are they going to be staking out the practices and protesting if he isnt the starter?  are there going to be non stop interviews with his new teammates asking about his demeanor and professionalism?  will there be special news breaks throughout the day to give reports on his progress?

 if his politics were a hang up for some owners, for some it may be,  but others I think just dont want to deal with the distraction,  but even if he agreed to stop that shit IMO he has become untouchable because of the circus that will surely follow him and the fact that his talents have been so over stated that if he wasnt handed a starting job there would likely be rioting at that teams headquarters.

[Guest]

The quoted part is the part that is both true and extremely sad at the same time.  

Edit: not your take Jimmy but the reality. 

but others I think just dont want to deal with the distraction

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I don't agree with him on all of his stuff. I don't agree with everyone on all of their views. But he has some points that really do ring true for me. Some of it is pretty undeniable, if you stop and look at it from a macro level in terms of how do we all succeed. If we were to analyze some of these things within a system it would be undeniable that there are problems that require an immediate localized solution, others that required a systemic approach to correct, and still others that might require a redesign earlier to prevent downstream problems. 

But we don't think like that. We see something we don't like and we blame that. And only that. It's like continually cleaning the carbs on your motorcycle because you don't do the maintenance on other parts of the system to keep it running. 

But I do agree with A1 that perhaps his biggest problem is his ability. I'm not sure what his contract demands are at this stage of the game. But if they are not within negotiating range of his abilities then he either needs to re-evaluate his demands.... Or if it is more important to him to use that for his plight.... Then so be it. 

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@Mike Olson said:
The quoted part is the part that is both true and extremely sad at the same time.  

Edit: not your take Jimmy but the reality. 

but others I think just dont want to deal with the distraction

What is sad about that?  Distractions hurt teams and these owners have easily over $200 million invested into each season,  why risk a huge distraction on a guy that really isn't that great to begin with?

If he was a black tom brady or aaron rogers would he still be out of work?  What about other black players that have been political but weren't "black listed"?  

Life's not fair,  but that's how it is,  better payers get away with shit that average or sub par players dont.  Kap over estimated his value as a player and then lost.

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Kaepernick is clearly better than a lot of the leagues backup QBs  He should be able to find a job as a backup QB.  The teams in this league don't give a shit about his political views, just like they don't care about players that beat women, dogs, or children or drive drunk or do drugs or whatever.

They only care about the negative light that can be painted on the organization and the distraction that he'll bring.  I think the media is the primary driver of the frenzy.  It would not have been complicated to just let him protest by himself, and not pan the camera over him and not talk about it.

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@A1Janitor said:
I agree that the media is largely to blame.  They give him this platform.

For me ... it is not about his position, and whether he is right or wrong.  It's about using the platform of gameday to advance his political views.  I don't want to hear Rush Limbaugh talking politics before kickoff either.  

Kap isn't fixing anything.  In fact he is missing the irony that 70% of the NFL are black millionaires.  Hardly a country that oppresses black people.  

Fix the real problems.  And Kap could donate money to help the "opressed".

I think the hubub about him now is keeping him unemployed....that and ive heard he still wants starters money but that might be softening as the season nears.

but even with his political protest aside,  the circus around him now has built to something that is absolutely beyond anything any sane coach, gm, owner, city or fan would want around their team IMO.

as far as him using his money to help,  espn was taking pains to point out his charitable endeavors in their reports today.

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@JimmyinSD said:

@Mike Olson said:
The quoted part is the part that is both true and extremely sad at the same time.  

Edit: not your take Jimmy but the reality. 

but others I think just dont want to deal with the distraction

What is sad about that?  Distractions hurt teams and these owners have easily over $200 million invested into each season,  why risk a huge distraction on a guy that really isn't that great to begin with?

If he was a black tom brady or aaron rogers would he still be out of work?  What about other black players that have been political but weren't "black listed"?  

Life's not fair,  but that's how it is,  better payers get away with shit that average or sub par players dont.  Kap over estimated his value as a player and then lost.

What I think is sad is that we deal with it as a distraction. We have been kicking this can down the road for decades and decades from Jackie Robinson, and Hank Aarron to any number of black athletes that want to point out where we are wrong as a nation. As long as we continue to keep dismissing these things as a distraction from the game then we will continue (and rightfully so) have people speak out about injustices. While I said I don't agree with everything he has said. I think he is ill informed on some of his points or at least he definitely had been. But the NFL is missing the boat on this and the sad part is they could have controlled this and embraced what he is trying to do rather than try to sweep it under the rug. If you stop and think about things like wage disparity between black folk and white folks it is undeniable that there is a disparity there. When you look at what types of things those disparities can effect on a family you start to get a better understanding of how deeply and systemic these issues run and why we end up with the multitudes of issues that we have. Really one only needs to look at the question of "why do we allow a black man to earn 76% of the salary of a white man?" I care about how workers are treated because that is the lifeblood of our country. It is something that we have completely lost focus on here in the last 30 some years. 

Like I said I don't agree with some of his stuff, but as a country of workers we should be demanding answers on why this is allowed to keep happening. Because I for one can't come up with any good reason as to why we have a systemic problem where we don't pay people the same based on their color of skin. NFL could have and shoukd have found a way to address his message and turn it into a meaningful conversation. And I am no saying that they shoukd have done that for moral reasons (which maybe they should have) But a smart business man shoukd have seen where this was going and turned the net negative into a net positive. Because the league hasn't gained anything on this issue. They just continue to punch themselves in the face.