Believe in something



  • The real sacrifice are the thousands of Chinese women making .20 an hour, working 80 hours a week in horrible conditions so Nike can pay Kap millions of dollars. The hypocrisy is profound. Just my opinion- you won’t change my opinion, and I know I won’t change yours.



  • @KUSTEVE I don’t know if your comment is to me or not, but I do want to go on record as abhoring Nike’s labor policies. I have never bought a Nike product and never will. I suspect that the money to Kap, however, will largely likely go to many of the causes he has funded with, I believe, millions of dollars. So, while it might be paid to him by a sweat shop, that money might have gone to someone whose only goal would be to buy a yacht, fancy cars, or another 18 room mansion in Palm Springs.



  • KUSTEVE said:

    The real sacrifice are the thousands of Chinese women making .20 an hour, working 80 hours a week in horrible conditions so Nike can pay Kap millions of dollars. The hypocrisy is profound. Just my opinion- you won’t change my opinion, and I know I won’t change yours.

    Yes, I am waiting for Kap to come out and make a statement about that.



  • Also let’s be clear. Kap doesn’t know what sacrifice is. He has made over 35M dollars playing a game, and is now going to be paid millions dollars a year by Nike.



  • @Woodrow Risking your career and subjecting yourself to death threats–those are sacrifices regardless of how much money you previously made.

    It does not say deprivation.





  • @mayjay My comment was about Kapertrick, not you. I confess I haven’t read your post. Nike is a modern day slave trader, and they bought an activist who was up for sale to bring about political change so Nike could avoid paying taxes. If Kapertrick was truly concerned about oppression, brutality, and the worst form of racism, he wouldn’t take a plug nickel from Nike. If Nike was truly concerned about racism and police brutality, they wouldn’t do almost all their business in a country that has one of the most brutal human rights records in the world. Nike perpetuates this human slavery, and props up this repressive regime. Trump was going to hit Nike with import fees, so now Nike cares about human rights. The sanctimony, and the hypocrisy is deafening.



  • @mayjay

    What real sacrifice did he make? The kneeling did not start until after he was benched. He thought that other teams would be making offers but they did not materialize and it was not due to collusion. After the process was in motion, ESPN interviewed a big name QB (his name escapes me just now) that was doing commentary and he indicated the two primary football reasons why he was not offered a contract, the first is because his skills were no longer those of a starting QB for a top half team and the money he wanted was that of an elite QB. The second and perhaps the more important was that Kaepernick requires a specific type of offense that most teams do not run and teams want a back up QB that can step in with the team’s offense as run by the starting QB and not having to revamp the offense to fit his style of play in the middle of a game or season; in any case, he refused to be a backup which made everything else moot. The third reason is that he was and is still toxic from a business perspective and football teams are for profit businesses and owners do not like to lose fans and by extension revenue.

    Keep in mind that even then he had 3 legitimate chances to get a contract and he sabotaged all 3 of them. Baltimore was going to offer him a contract but his girlfriend posted on Twitter something that absolutely killed the deal; he could have distanced himself from it but he chose not to do it. Miami was ready to offer him a contract but he chose to make a statement about how great Castro was knowing that it offended the large Cuban population in South Florida and once again killed the deal. Seattle also talked to him and all they asked was that he keep his political activism off the field like employees everywhere are required to do but he chose not to do it. I cannot imagine an owner in his right business mind hiring him under those conditions.

    By the way, he is nothing but a hypocrite. He complains about Police abuse and yet he praises Castro who ran one for the more repressive and totalitarian regimes in history and killed more Cubans, solely because they opposed his regime, than police has killed minorities in this country (which is 30 times larger) while enforcing the law with the great majority (not all) being while following standard protocol. I am not saying that there are not bad police officers, of course there are, but there are also bad engineers and bad lawyers and bad doctors and let’s not forget bad priest too. No profession is perfect and most cops do a good job under very difficult conditions.

    If you have a chance, do a “ride along” with a police officer, many Police Departments have programs to do just this. I did one with a friend that was police office in the KCMO area and include some inner city neighborhoods and it was not even a busy weekend night and I acquired a completely different view of what they do, the abuse they take and a new appreciation for their service.



  • @JayHawkFanToo Preach my man!





  • @KUSTEVE I just remember their alternate use, when filled with water, as a pendulum set to swing into the face of someone opening their Oliver Hall door…



  • @JayHawkFanToo Exactly, not only are people not buying his so called sacrifice but anyone in marketing should’ve known it was a bad move. Kaep has been against police and has been wearing cops as pigs for sock, so you’re gonna lose cops as customers. He has been vocal about supporting Castro, which means people that are against communism and murder may take their business elsewhere as well. Its just not a smart move on many fronts IMO



  • @JayHawkFanToo

    The type of offense Kaepernick excels in is the type of offense run by the following teams:

    Houston, Dallas, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Carolina, Miami, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Seattle.

    Of those teams, Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa and Tennessee all have/had openings at QB. The football argument is a tired argument. It was about the protests. Just own that. Same as the Chiefs should own that trading Marcus Peters was not a football decision, now that they will be trotting out a bottom third secondary this season.

    As for what Kaepernick sacrificed, he gave up his career, and a lucrative one at that. Perhaps you disagree with the reason why he gave that career up, but its a false narrative to think Kaepernick is not in the NFL now because of his football skills.



  • @justanotherfan He is not in the NFL because his talent is not worth the headache that owners and coaches would have to deal with. It is simple. If he was talented enough he would be on a team… You think is Cam Newton was doing this he would be in the same situation as Kap?

    He is making more money now off of book deals and Nike then he would have as a backup QB so your he scarficed money argument holds no water.



  • @Woodrow

    Well, considering who the Panthers former owner was, I think the Panthers would have probably cut or traded him. Whether he was blacklisted like Kaep is a harder question.



  • @justanotherfan It is actually not that hard of a question. Cam is a talented QB who can help a team win at the highest level. Kap is not. One is worth the headache and one is not.



  • @Woodrow Actually, the argument that “Kap is not worth the headache” is logically a concession that his protest, or at least the notoriety with it, is the reason for him not being signed. Call it a tradeoff: where unique talent exceeds backlash expected from notoriety, sign him; where notoriety is higher, don’t sign him. If others at that talent level are all signed, then his protest is the difference.

    I don’t think this necessarily supports his collusion (oh, dear: that word again!) claim in arbitration, however. The supply of middle echelon quarterbacks means that is entirely possible to me that NFL teams signing backup QBs this year independently decided to avoid a radioactive Kap after considering the massive amounts of info, press, social media, ratings, and of course ticket sales.



  • @justanotherfan

    You need to be more open minded and consider that maybe Kaepernick is no longer starting QB material. Stating as a fact that his protest was the only reason he was not picked up is being very closed minded.

    As I wrote above, Kaepernick not playing is because a combination of reasons including but not limited to being past his prime, wanting to get paid elite QB wages when most teams consider him a backup, not wanting to be a backup only a starter and yes…being really bad for business because of his insistence on protesting on company’s time, something no one is entitled to and something that fans do not want to see and thus negatively affecting the bottom line.



  • Open minded lol!



  • I have never thought Kap was genuine, but that is just how I saw it unfold. It’s hard to believe a guy who just lost his starting job AND is hypocritical for so many reasons. (Of course my favorite new reason is making millions off of a company that is known for running sweatshops, and to this day, won’t allow inspections to see the conditions of their factories. Factories that are of course in countries lead by dictators or known for awful worker’s rights or the oppression of women. Some even hit the trifecta). So I never did understand the support of Kap.

    But, he is talented enough to be in the NFL. Just not at $10M a year like he has reportedly wanted. His last season he threw 16 TDs and only 4 picks. A team would be lucky to have him as a backup. However, backup QB is about the last place you want to have a distraction. You don’t even want to know your backup QBs name. So, is he worth having on your team? Absolutely not. But he is 100% talented enough.



  • Kap doesn’t really want a job in the NFL. It doesn’t fit with his and his handlers narrative.



  • We have gone over this a few times, but I just want to remind everyone of some of the QBs that will be starting for actual NFL teams this weekend, along with their passer rating from last season (Kaepernick had a rating of 90.7 in 2016, and will turn 31 later this year):

    Again, this is just football reasons and doesn’t take contracts or anything else into account.

    Eli Manning and Joe Flacco (both at 80.4)

    Blake Bortles (84.7)

    Derek Carr (86.4)

    Andy Dalton (86.6)

    Cam Newton (80.7)

    Marcus Mariota (79.3)

    Now, here’s a list of teams that do not have a QB on their 2018 roster with a higher rating than Kaepernick in either 2016 or 2017:

    Buffalo, Denver, Kansas City, Baltimore, Jacksonville, Giants, Cleveland, Chicago, Jets, Indianapolis.

    If we take out the teams that either have new, young QBs or a guy returning from injury (KC, Chicago, Indy) that still leaves us with 7 teams that don’t have a STARTING QB on their roster better than Colin Kaepernick. Cleveland isn’t starting Mayfield this year. Buffalo isn’t starting Allen. Denver’s QB situation is horrible. Eli Manning was past his best by date two years ago. Jacksonville might have gone to the Super Bowl last year with a QB better than Blake Bortles. The Jets QB situation is a tragic comedy. And Joe Flacco is basically Eli Manning with less famous siblings.

    Saying he’s just a backup is flat out false. He’s better than maybe a third of the QBs that will start this weekend. He’s better than basically every backup not named Carson Wentz. Heck, the most damaging thing the NFL has against them regarding the lawsuit is that the Miami Dolphins brought Jay Cutler (yes, that Jay Cutler) out of retirement to start actual live NFL games for them last year.

    Like I said, anyone is free to disagree with Kaepernick, his protest, his methods, or anything else you want to. But saying its a football based decision is a false narrative.



  • @justanotherfan Saying he is a starter is flat out false.

    He is 10- 22 in his last 32 starts (I gave him the benefit of two full season’s of data. He is 4-20 in his last 24 games which is a season and a half of data exactly).

    He takes a TON of sacks. He is one of the least accurate passers. He has one of the worst Net Yards Gained per Passing Attempt. He doesn’t throw a lot of TDs, percentage-wise. He doesn’t get a lot of yards just in general.

    He is just not a starting QB. No matter how hard you want to spin it that way. It is simply a false narrative. I don’t know another 31 year old QB that could go 4-20 in there last 24 games and someone could claim that player is a starter.

    I’m going to give you a list. This is QBs who have won more games in their last 24 starts than Kap, but also aren’t starters on their team currently. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Nick Foles, Chase Daniel, Josh McCown, Brian Hoyer, Chad Henne, Trevor Siemien, Jacoby Brissett, Colt McCoy, Matt Shaub, Brock Osweiller, Blaine Gabbert, Geno Smith, RG3, EJ Manuel, Matt Cassel, Brandon Weeden, Teddy Bridgewater, Drew Stanton, Mike Glennon, and Derek Anderson.

    That is 21 guys who are backups who have won more games given the same opportunity. So, what makes Kap any more special than these guys?



  • justanotherfan said:

    We have gone over this a few times, but I just want to remind everyone of some of the QBs that will be starting for actual NFL teams this weekend, along with their passer rating from last season (Kaepernick had a rating of 90.7 in 2016, and will turn 31 later this year):

    Again, this is just football reasons and doesn’t take contracts or anything else into account.

    Eli Manning and Joe Flacco (both at 80.4)

    Blake Bortles (84.7)

    Derek Carr (86.4)

    Andy Dalton (86.6)

    Cam Newton (80.7)

    Marcus Mariota (79.3)

    Now, here’s a list of teams that do not have a QB on their 2018 roster with a higher rating than Kaepernick in either 2016 or 2017:

    Buffalo, Denver, Kansas City, Baltimore, Jacksonville, Giants, Cleveland, Chicago, Jets, Indianapolis.

    If we take out the teams that either have new, young QBs or a guy returning from injury (KC, Chicago, Indy) that still leaves us with 7 teams that don’t have a STARTING QB on their roster better than Colin Kaepernick. Cleveland isn’t starting Mayfield this year. Buffalo isn’t starting Allen. Denver’s QB situation is horrible. Eli Manning was past his best by date two years ago. Jacksonville might have gone to the Super Bowl last year with a QB better than Blake Bortles. The Jets QB situation is a tragic comedy. And Joe Flacco is basically Eli Manning with less famous siblings.

    Saying he’s just a backup is flat out false. He’s better than maybe a third of the QBs that will start this weekend. He’s better than basically every backup not named Carson Wentz. Heck, the most damaging thing the NFL has against them regarding the lawsuit is that the Miami Dolphins brought Jay Cutler (yes, that Jay Cutler) out of retirement to start actual live NFL games for them last year.

    Like I said, anyone is free to disagree with Kaepernick, his protest, his methods, or anything else you want to. But saying its a football based decision is a false narrative.

    I refuse to believe that you believe this. Either you don’t watch football or don’t know anything about it. Thanks for the laughs though.



  • KUSTEVE said:

    The real sacrifice are the thousands of Chinese women making .20 an hour, working 80 hours a week in horrible conditions so Nike can pay Kap millions of dollars. The hypocrisy is profound. Just my opinion- you won’t change my opinion, and I know I won’t change yours.


    Frozen rope out. of the Park!!!



  • KUSTEVE said:

    @mayjay My comment was about Kapertrick, not you. I confess I haven’t read your post. Nike is a modern day slave trader, and they bought an activist who was up for sale to bring about political change so Nike could avoid paying taxes. If Kapertrick was truly concerned about oppression, brutality, and the worst form of racism, he wouldn’t take a plug nickel from Nike. If Nike was truly concerned about racism and police brutality, they wouldn’t do almost all their business in a country that has one of the most brutal human rights records in the world. Nike perpetuates this human slavery, and props up this repressive regime. Trump was going to hit Nike with import fees, so now Nike cares about human rights. The sanctimony, and the hypocrisy is deafening.

    Go Steve!

    Nike might sign you to a million dollar contract too.

    相信一些事情

    “Xiāngxìn yīxiē shìqíng”



  • @Kcmatt7

    Are you citing QB wins? Does that make Blake Bortles a top ten QB? Asking for a friend.



  • 0_1536211545981_20180906_002332.jpg

    Too funny not to share



  • @justanotherfan I think Kaepernick is good enough to start at a few select teams in the NFL. He declined his player option and has rejected offers to play. Not many QBs last with that record, that’s a fact. He could be competing for the starting Job right now in Denver. I think it’s a fairly safe assumption that he didn’t because he was in with Nike and was gonna make good money.



  • @justanotherfan That and your list of teams that don’t have better QB ratings include several teams with rookie or first year QBs starting. How the hell can they have better rating than Kaepernick if they haven’t played. Come on Man!! Lol it honestly feels odd disagreeing with you, still love ya man.





  • @justanotherfan are you citing passer rating? asking for a friend.



  • Kcmatt7 said:

    @justanotherfan are you citing passer rating? asking for a friend.

    He is.

    I would agree that on merit alone Kaepernick could probably have got a starting job, and definitely a back-up for basically any team.

    He is not a great QB though and saying he is definitely better than all of those players listed is incorrect. I would say Kaepernick and Bortles are actually pretty similar. Each is better in different ways but the totality of it is about the same. Kaep’s biggest problem is that he struggled to put any touch on his passes. Before all the drama and any of the kneeling my stance on Kaep is that he was overrated by many and actually pretty bad.



  • Flacco is absolute garbage though. He was a five alarm tire fire last year.



  • Kcmatt7 said: @justanotherfan

    He takes a TON of sacks. He is one of the least accurate passers. He has one of the worst Net Yards Gained per Passing Attempt. He doesn’t throw a lot of TDs, percentage-wise. He doesn’t get a lot of yards just in general.

    I also said this ^^^^^^^^^^. These are important stats. He has a low completion percentage, he takes more sacks than any other QB in the game (and has for years), and therefore he doesn’t get a lot of yards. I mean that combo alone makes him a backup.

    He also has a piss poor 3rd down conversion rate, yards per drive, and points per drive stats.

    Dive deeper than a weighted stat that only measures 3 things. You’re better than that.



  • BShark said:

    Kcmatt7 said:

    @justanotherfan are you citing passer rating? asking for a friend.

    He is.

    I would agree that on merit alone Kaepernick could probably have got a starting job, and definitely a back-up for basically any team.

    He is not a great QB though and saying he is definitely better than all of those players listed is incorrect. I would say Kaepernick and Bortles are actually pretty similar. Each is better in different ways but the totality of it is about the same. Kaep’s biggest problem is that he struggled to put any touch on his passes. Before all the drama and any of the kneeling my stance on Kaep is that he was overrated by many and actually pretty bad.

    Lol that 2014 season he played was when I knew he sucked. He couldn’t hit a receiver if he was 10 feet away. And if he did, it was a bullet.

    If not for him, that SF team might make the playoffs. If we want to use Passer rating, Kyle Orton, Mark Sanchez and Ryan Fitzpatrick all had better seasons. He also took the 2nd most sacks that season and had a horrible net yards per attempt average. Or, you know, things that haven’t been fixed.

    But of course, he had a better passer rating that season than Newton, Stafford, Dalton, and Foles so he should be starting for the Eagles, Panthers, Lions or Bengals this week lol.



  • Kcmatt7 said:

    Kcmatt7 said: @justanotherfan

    He takes a TON of sacks. He is one of the least accurate passers. He has one of the worst Net Yards Gained per Passing Attempt. He doesn’t throw a lot of TDs, percentage-wise. He doesn’t get a lot of yards just in general.

    I also said this ^^^^^^^^^^. These are important stats. He has a low completion percentage, he takes more sacks than any other QB in the game (and has for years), and therefore he doesn’t get a lot of yards. I mean those two combos alone make him a backup.

    He also has a piss poor 3rd down conversion rate, yards per drive, and points per drive stats.

    Dive deeper than a weighted stat that only measures 3 things. You’re better than that.

    The fact that I think he could start for some teams definitely says more about the quality of QB play in the league than it does Kaep being good, imo.

    Also strongly agree with this. You can make a case for Kaep, but don’t make it based on a terrible stat like Passer rating.



  • BShark said:

    Flacco is absolute garbage though. He was a five alarm tire fire last year.

    And they drafted Lamar Jackson so why would they need to bring in Kap?



  • My point is not that Kaep would be a top ten or even necessarily a top 20 QB. But I bet you he could start for five teams in the league right now, and that doesn’t include teams that are starting young QBs like Chicago, KC, Houston, etc. But there are other teams that don’t have young QBs that are starting QBs that are terrible (Bills, Jets, Giants, Ravens if they don’t start Jackson, Broncos, you could argue Cincinnati and Arizona could be on this list also).

    Kaep has definite shortcomings. I wouldn’t build my team around him. But he’s better than several QBs in the league now. That’s the point I’m attacking. Not that he would be All-Pro or above average - but that he could, absent the NFL freezing him out, be a starting QB in the NFL right now, today, this week. He is not.

    Therefore he did sacrifice something. There are many that wish Kaepernick was poor and destitute on the street so that they could rub it in his face because he offended their sensibilities, so they undercut him by saying he wasn’t good enough to be in the NFL when that is clearly not true. I’m not trying to change anyone’s opinions on Kaep or his social positions. But saying he couldn’t start in the NFL is still false because there are starting QBs in the NFL that outright suck, and some of those teams don’t even have a young QB that they are building around. Maybe Kaep would be the 25th best QB in the league. Maybe he would be the 30th. But he would almost certainly start, and I guarantee you that in a few weeks, when some teams starter goes down with injury, Colin Kaepernick will be better than the guy that team chooses to replace him with. After all, Jay Cutler got the call last year.



  • @justanotherfan I can agree with this point and I do hope Kaep wins his collusion suit.



  • Here is one for all the Chief fans here.

    alt text



  • justanotherfan said:

    My point is not that Kaep would be a top ten or even necessarily a top 20 QB. But I bet you he could start for five teams in the league right now, and that doesn’t include teams that are starting young QBs like Chicago, KC, Houston, etc. But there are other teams that don’t have young QBs that are starting QBs that are terrible (Bills, Jets, Giants, Ravens if they don’t start Jackson, Broncos, you could argue Cincinnati and Arizona could be on this list also).

    Kaep has definite shortcomings. I wouldn’t build my team around him. But he’s better than several QBs in the league now. That’s the point I’m attacking. Not that he would be All-Pro or above average - but that he could, absent the NFL freezing him out, be a starting QB in the NFL right now, today, this week. He is not.

    Therefore he did sacrifice something. There are many that wish Kaepernick was poor and destitute on the street so that they could rub it in his face because he offended their sensibilities, so they undercut him by saying he wasn’t good enough to be in the NFL when that is clearly not true. I’m not trying to change anyone’s opinions on Kaep or his social positions. But saying he couldn’t start in the NFL is still false because there are starting QBs in the NFL that outright suck, and some of those teams don’t even have a young QB that they are building around. Maybe Kaep would be the 25th best QB in the league. Maybe he would be the 30th. But he would almost certainly start, and I guarantee you that in a few weeks, when some teams starter goes down with injury, Colin Kaepernick will be better than the guy that team chooses to replace him with. After all, Jay Cutler got the call last year.

    The Bills have Josh Allen, the Jets are starting Sam Darnold, the Giants have Eli Manning, and the Ravens have Flacco and Lamar Jackson. So no there is no reason any of those teams would need to sign Kap.

    Just because Allen and Baker are not starting week 1 doesn’t mean they are not going to play at some point this season. There is no reason for any of the teams you mentioned to bring Kap in. That is the reality.



  • @Woodrow Kaep, especially when he got froze out was at worst a bottom 5 starter. To say otherwise is pretty disingenuous and remember I don’t think Kaep is very good.

    The Jets started 38 y/o Josh McCown 13 games last year for crying out loud. Tyrod Taylor and Jay Cutler started 14 games each last year. Something called a Trevor Siemian started 10 games for Denver. It’s not like QB play is at an all time high. The arguments against Kaepernick not being good enough to start for a team last year are full of crap.





  • BShark said:

    https://www.chronicle.com/article/College-of-the-Ozarks-Drops/244446

    Embarrassing.

    I don’t find this embarrassing for them at all. They have decided to select a specific position. That’s their right.

    It would be wrong for me to mischaracterize their opposition to Nike’s position as being veiled racism, or being in support of police brutality.

    Although, come to think of it, College of the Ozarks has mischaracterized Kaepernick and others that protest as being anti-US or anti-military, when the protesters have clearly stated that this is not the case.

    But it’s still wrong to mischaracterize someone’s position when they have explicitly stated their position. In this case, College of the Ozarks has stated that their intent is patriotism, so I will go with that.



  • alt text



  • @JayHawkFanToo I hope you didn’t ride w/her. BREAKING: Rookie Lawrence police officer said she meant to Tase man at traffic stop — accidentally grabbed, fired gun instead www2.ljworld.com/news/public-sa…



  • https://morningconsult.com/form/nike-kaepernick-report/

    This is a pretty thorough report on the early returns or lack there of for Nike.



  • @justanotherfan

    Here is another perspective on Kaepernick’s performance which does agree with yours.



  • Crimsonorblue22 said:

    @JayHawkFanToo I hope you didn’t ride w/her. BREAKING: Rookie Lawrence police officer said she meant to Tase man at traffic stop — accidentally grabbed, fired gun instead www2.ljworld.com/news/public-sa…

    The link you posted is not working but I believe I indicated it was Kansas City, Missouri and included areas in the inner city. I am not sure how a Lawrence police officer fits into the narrative.


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