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Some seven months since Colin Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the 49ers, the former second-round pick who helped the team to a Super Bowl following the 2012 season remains out of work. Even as other, arguably less qualified quarterbacks sign to play in the NFL.
Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, once Kaepernick's fierce rival in the NFC West, has an idea why Kaepernick remains unemployed.
"You hear every excuse in the world," he said, via the News Tribune. "It's not this system, this system doesn't work for him -- these quarterbacks are terrible in any system; there are quarterbacks that are bad in every system. And so what?"
The most recent example played out earlier this month when the Titans' Marcus Mariota, a mobile quarterback playing in an offense that accentuates his physical gifts, suffered a hamstring injury. Kaepernick, coach Mike Mularkey said, didn't know the Titans' offense and as far as he knew the team never had any interest in bringing him in. Tennessee instead signed Brandon Weeden.
"People are vehemently saying 'NO!' Just say, no. It's not like he's a bad player," Sherman said. "It's not like we are talking about a guy who's never won a football game, who's never taken his team to a Super Bowl. There's quarterbacks out there [in the NFL] that's never taken their team to the playoffs, never had a winning record, that have jobs, that are starters in this league.
There's more.
"Then you hear these coaches and scouts that are like, 'Well, you know, we didn't like him coming out of college.' People didn't like Tom Brady coming out of college; he went in the sixth round," Sherman said. "Like, these people aren't know-it-alls, you know what I mean? They don't know everything. These scouts don't know everything. Aaron Rodgers fell to [24 in the first round of the NFL Draft]. How many people would turn around and regret that decision?"
"People should be losing their jobs, because they are idiots. You've heard every excuse in the book for why [Kaepernick] doesn't have a job, but you can see what it is. They've agreed not to give him a job."
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has stated previously that Kaepernick's situation isn't a result of his activism, something Patriots owner Bob Kraft reiterated in a recent interview. But Sherman is not alone in his thinking.
"I think he should be on a roster right now," Rodgers told Mina Kimes of ESPN the Magazine just before the season. "I think because of his protests, he's not."
Brady is convinced that Kaepernick deserves another opportunity, as does the man who got the backup job in Tennessee.
"He's had a heck of a career," Weeden said earlier this month. "He played in a Super Bowl. Obviously, he's done a lot of really good things. I think us as players, we all kind of firmly believe that he's a good enough player to play in this league."
Turns out, the latest twist in the Kaepernick saga -- his decision to file a collusion grievance against the owners -- was a direct result of the Titans snubbing him following Mariota's injury, according to a report from Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio.
As CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora wrote earlier this month, "Tennessee officials were contacted and made aware of Kaepernick's fitness level, his regimen and his desire to work out for the team, but sources said the matter was unable to advance."