A new report by ESPN provides a behind the scenes look at “Why Colin Kaepernick and the NFL were never going to work out,” told from “the viewpoints of Kaepernick and his legal team, the NFL attorneys in charge of negotiating the deal for the league, an NFLPA at a curious remove from the center of the action and a host of sources close to the situation.”
While the report presents the workout debacle in a rather fatalistic light, as the title suggests, and presents Team Kaepernick in a sympathetic manner, quotes and comments from league insiders suggest that what ultimately derailed the Nov. 16 workout Kaepernick chose to skip last second was his camp’s “distrust” and “resentment” of the league, which appears to have been genuinely offering him a “legitimate” shot at getting back on the field.
“After an extraordinary week of cynicism and possibilities, what remained after the doomed workout on Nov. 16 was a set of dueling narratives: One held that the NFL was never truly serious about a Kaepernick return; the other held that Kaepernick was so unwilling to compromise to a reasonable, professional standard that he closed the last, best chance to resume his NFL career,” writes ESPN Senior Writer Howard Bryant in his insider look at Kaepernick’s aborted tryout published Tuesday.
According to Bryant’s sources, the Kaepernick workout idea began with Roger Goodell having strong motivation to “find a path back for Kaepernick” into the league and reports that “two teams were legitimately interested in Kaepernick” – READ MORE