“‘I would love to offer you a risk-free contingency plan.’”
That’s Colin Kaepernick, who took his last snap as an NFL quarterback on New Year’s Day in 2017, addressing New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas in a letter dated Sept. 21 and given a wider public audience this week.
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Kaepernick, who led the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2013 and went on to make headlines for his social activism (including, of course, his decision to kneel during the pregame playing of the national anthem as a silent protest against institutional racism and perceived policing malpractice), observes in his letter to the Jets front-office chief that this young season is not shaping up as the Jets hoped, as exemplified by a 1-2 record and the loss for the season of future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers in his first offensive series as a member of the Jets.
University of Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh, shown with Colin Kaepernick in April 2022, is listed as a reference on Kaepernick’s letter to New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas.
Jaime Crawford/Getty Images
From the archives (June 2020): NFL condemns racism, admits ‘we were wrong’ — Colin Kaepernick has more support now, still long way to go
Also see (February 2020): Colin Kaepernick: ‘I want to tell the story’ behind taking the knee
Kaepernick, however, doesn’t pitch himself as a replacement for Rodgers — at 39 four years Kaepernick’s senior — in his letter to Douglas. He doesn’t even argue that he should be hired to back up the Jets’ backup, Zach Wilson, whom Kaepernick characterizes as having “the tools to do this.”
Instead, Kaepernick, who purportedly has kept in game shape over the years even as NFL quarterbacking opportunities have failed to come his way (or, to critics of NFL management, been collusively kept from him), writes that he “would be honored and extremely grateful for the opportunity to come in and lead the practice squad,” effectively emulating each successive Jets opponent’s quarterback on weekdays with no chance of taking the field on Sunday.
Should he prove his mettle on the scout team, he concedes, he would ultimately hope to move up the Jets depth chart. For the team, he says, he’d have been brought aboard as “a risk-free contingency plan.”
