This may be a very hard concept for most of the #woke to absorb but the National Football League is not a progressive nonprofit that doesn’t need to show positive results. The NFL is a business, and in keeping this as simple as possible, it’s a league of 32 teams and only one can attain the ultimate goal which is winning a Super Bowl.

Then again, that may change. Stand by….

There has been much dismay by the activist left that no team, since the Baltimore Ravens in 2018, has offered Colin Kaepernick an opportunity. It’s not solely because of his Black Lives Matter activism, but because of his on-the-field numbers just prior to his being cut from the San Francisco 49ers; numbers probably few (if any) supporters of Kaepernick could tell you off hand.

There is also a major issue with any team that even makes mention of possibly acquiring Colin Kaepernick.

Kaepernick was supposed to work out for NFL teams at the Falcons’ facility earlier this year, but after disagreements over various aspects of the session, Kaepernick moved the workout to an Atlanta-area high school.

Despite looking good in the session, Kaepernick wasn’t offered a contract by any NFL team.
— Yahoo Sports, 6/28/20

For shits and giggles, let’s just say the Atlanta Falcons signed Kaepernick. Do you really think he’d be expected to sit on the bench behind Matt Ryan? No way, José. The team would be pressured into starting Kaepernick which means Matt Ryan would be looking for a new home, and there would be teams who’d offer him tasty contracts within days.

Two weeks ago, Los Angeles Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said Kaepernick is on the team’s workout list. With team facilities shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s unclear when the Chargers might be able to bring in Kaepernick.

“Unclear” as this is not the greatest of situations seeing how the Chargers picked Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft to replace Philip Rivers, and also have a proven starter in Tyrod Taylor.

“I haven’t spoken with Colin, not sure where he’s at as far in his career, what he wants to do, but Colin definitely fits the style of quarterback for the system that we’re going to be running. I’m very confident and happy with the three quarterbacks that I have but you can never have too many people waiting on the runway,” Lynn said, via ESPN. The Chargers currently have Tyrod Taylor, No. 6 overall pick Justin Herbert and Easton Stick in their quarterback room.
— NBC Sports, 6/17/20

A very safe way of Coach Lynn’s saying the safe thing: he wouldn’t mind having another option… (but he doesn’t really need Kaepernick).

First round picks are seldom told they’re going to be benched when they get that call on Draft Day. If Kaepernick started and is moderately successful, Herbert may wish to look elsewhere for playing time resulting in a wasted first round pick by Los Angeles. Tyrod Taylor would be the most logical starter for Los Angeles while Herbert learned and wasn’t thrown into that infamous rookie trial-by-fire that’s maimed many careers.

And again, if Kaepernick doesn’t play well, Coach Lynn would be well aware of the social activist backlash if he did what most teams tend to do to a player who’s not performing: sit him down on the bench and replace him with someone who may do better.

Kaepernick visited the Seattle Seahawks in the spring of 2017 after he opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers, making him a free agent. Head coach Pete Carroll’s reasoning for not signing him at the time was that the Seahawks felt he was a starter and they already had one in Russell Wilson.
— ESPN, 6/11/20

Here’s the reality of any Colin Kaepernick situation in the NFL

Most teams already have a starting quarterback, and yes, some are better than others. But if a team signs Kaepernick, it’ll be demanded by forces outside of a team front office, that he be the starting quarterback for Week 1 and the head coach’s ability to choose his quarterback will be circumvented by the sports-ignorant in social media.

But bored sports writers with no sports to report are just left to their musings and speculation.

Colin Kaepernick could help five NFL teams if they’d give him contract

Pittsburgh Steelers
Franchise staple Ben Roethlisberger turned 38 in March, and likely doesn’t have many starter-quality years left in the NFL. Kaepernick is six years younger — and with Big Ben coming off an injury — the ex-49er could help keep the offense afloat for Pittsburgh in case Roethlisberger can’t return to his previous form.

New England Patriots
This likely would provide Kaepernick the best opportunity to be a starter right away. Franchise icon and proverbial GOAT QB Tom Brady departed this offseason in free agency, and many expect coach Bill Belichick to hand the keys over to untested young quarterback Jarrett Stidham. Kaepernick at the very least could give Stidham some stiff competition in training camp, if not win the starting job outright.

Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jaguars have dealt with ineptitude at the quarterback position for many years. Gardner Minshew didn’t exactly set the NFL on fire in his rookie season, but 21 touchdowns with just six interceptions over 14 games did inspire some hope in Jacksonville.

Detroit Lions
Matthew Stafford only played eight games in 2019 after breaking bones in his back. Stafford reportedly is 100 percent recovered from the injury, but has taken plenty of shots over his 11-year career. Trade rumors swirled around Stafford early last season, and he even put his $6.5 million Michigan home on the market in May. Kaepernick would be a nice insurance policy for Stafford, and even has a similarly powerful throwing arm.

Atlanta Falcons
Matt Ryan did win the NFL MVP just four years ago, but he hasn’t returned to near that level since offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan departed for the 49ers. Ryan’s numbers have declined, and he led the NFL after being sacked 48 times in 2019. Although Matt Schaub has been a serviceable backup, including throwing for 460 yards in his lone start last season, he’s 38 years old and likely isn’t much of an upgrade over Kap, if at all.

Kaepernick’s added athletic ability also could bring a different element to Atlanta’s offense in case of Ryan’s absence.
— NBC Sports, 6/6/20

Neither Pittsburgh nor New England, especially with their respective exposure to drama queen Antonio Brown, are going to want to bring off-the-field issues into their cultures. Both do have quarterback issues but both franchises also tend to land on their feet, not initially on a knee. Detroit is oh-so-slowly becoming New England West, so again, paying for drama unrelated to the field won’t be easily considered. Atlanta won’t bench Matt Ryan for the unknown Kaepernick is today.

Jacksonville is used to mediocrity so they may be a possibility. The problem is most of those pushing for Kaepernick’s return couldn’t tell you what conference Jacksonville is in, don’t buy game tickets, and wouldn’t know if the Sunday games are on CBS or Fox Sports. From a business standpoint, there’ll be as much monetary return if Kaepernick plays poorly as if he plays well and that’s not a good reason for giving any player a respectable contract.

Then there’s another reality, borne by facts: very few players who’ve missed three or more consecutive seasons have returned to the field with any modicum of success. There are, of course, exceptions but that number is very small, those players were elite, and none of them returned commanding what Colin Kaepernick and outside forces will want today for him to put on an NFL uniform.

Keeping it simple (again), very NFL team enters the season with one goal and only one goal: to win the Super Bowl. They hope to focus on that goal like a laser. Distractions are the last thing wanted in a locker room, and very few bring on a player who’ll bring off-the-field drama with them. Of course, there ARE players whose skills make them tolerable exceptions.

Colin Kaepernick is NOT one of them.

The Detroit Lions’ Monday Night debut with new head coach Matt Patricia was an epic debacle exposed on a national stage. His problem in accepting the job was not that he was going to turn things around in the Motor City but that he obviously believed he could do something former Patriots’ coordinators-turned-head coaches couldn’t: win.

Patricia should have made some phone calls and/or sat down with those before him and inquired why things what looked so good could go so wrong.

Bill Belichick
Special assistant, assistant special teams coach, receivers coach, assistant special teams coach/defensive assistant, special teams coach/defensive assistant, linebackers coach/special teams coach, defensive coordinator: 1975-1990
Pre-Patriots head coaching record: 36-44

Bill Parcells
Defensive coordinator, linebackers coach, defensive coordinator/linebackers coach, head coach: 1979-1990
New England Patriots head coach: 1997-2006
Post-Patriots head coaching record: 63-49

The Tuna doesn’t count (for obvious reasons)

Romeo Crennell
New England Patriots defensive coordinator: 1993–1996, 2001–2004
Post-Patriots’ head coaching record: 28-55

Charlie Weis
New England Patriots offensive coordinator: 2000-2004
Post-Patriots’ head coaching record (college): 41-49

Eric Mangini
New England Patriots offensive assistant, defensive assistant, defensive backs coach, defensive coordinator
See: #Spygate
Post-Patriots’ head coaching record: 33-47

Josh McDaniels
New England Patriots personnel assistant, defensive assistant, quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator: 2001-2008
Post-Patriots’ head coaching record: 11-17

Bill O’Brien
New England Patriots offensive assistant, wide receivers coach, quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator: 2007-2011
Post-Patriots’ head coaching record (as of 9/9/18): 31-34

and…

Matt Patricia
New England Patriots offensive assistant, assistant offensive line coach, linebackers coach, safeties coach, defensive coordinator: 2004-2017
Post-Patriots’ head coaching record (2018): 6-10

Yes, it’s way too early to declare the Matt Patricia era a failure, but it should be fairly obvious at this point that the insertion of one person won’t convert a losing franchise into a mirror image of One Patriot Place.

Will Mike Vrabel be different in Nashville?

Mike Vrabel
Houston Texans linebackers coach: 2015-2017
Post-Patriots’ head coaching record: 9-7

Former Patriots defensive coordinator Brian Flores should have known that Miami was going to be quite the project.

The Dolphins went into halftime down 42-10 to the Baltimore Ravens in an absolutely brutal first two quarters for new head coach Brian Flores. Things didn’t get better, either.

The Ravens scored a franchise best for points in the 59-10 destruction.
— Yahoo Sports, 9/8/19

When Bill Parcells (a proven genius) was hired as the New England Patriots’ head coach in 1993, he obviously did his homework and understood the culture of mediocrity he had assumed command over; a culture that needed more than the ordinary change. The Big Tuna not only brought in his own assistant coaches, but he also radically changed the team uniforms. He erased the “Patsies” legacy and everyone, from the front office down, was on notice and that his way (now known as the Patriot Way) was going to be the only way. In less than four years, he took a perennial laughingstock to the 1996 Super Bowl. Yes, the Patriots lost in part because of meddling by the New York Jets and internal differences with the team owner (differences Robert Kraft learned not to repeat with Bill Belichick) but a page was allowed to be turned.

Aside from Parcells, there is ONE exception and it’s a little complicated.

Pete Carroll
Defensive backs coach, defensive coordinator, head coach: 33-31
Post-Patriots’ head coaching record (college): 97-19, (NFL) 79-48

Carroll inherited Parcells’ foundation in New England and in three years managed to take them from finishing first in the AFC East to fourth, twice. He fled the Patriots for USC and retooled his approach before returning to the NFL in 2010. It’s always a tad easier to win with a decent team and owner with a healthy checkbook.

The one thing almost all of the former New England Patriots assistants failed to do as they assumed the helm of bad teams was to change the culture from the top down. Firing front office people, assistant coaches, toxic players, and visual cosmetic changes are valuable options that for the most part wasn’t done. These former Patriots’ coordinators obviously believed their mere presence was all it took to turn things around.

The success of the New England Patriots was a process that was proceeded with a jolt, not a tinkering around the edges of a losing culture. When Parcells took over the Patriots, we were more than optimistic because of his bull-in-the-china shop approach. There was no such internal destruction when Weis, Crennel, McDaniels, O’Brien and now Patricia took over their new teams.

I made the argument years ago after #Spygate when so many were calling the Patriots cheaters, that had Robert Kraft fired Bill Belichick, there would 31 cities of New England-hating football fans who’d enthusiastically embrace him in a heartbeat if he were to be hired to transform their team. Then again, notice how Coach Belichick is still in New England. Who needs to leave and try to clean up, in some cases, decades worth of caked-on dysfunction?

Matt Patricia is just the latest Patriots’ former coordinator to have found out the hard way that a losing team needs to be blown up during the offeseason so it won’t be blown up for the football world to see on national television on Week One.

Note: The Tennessee Titans’ new head coach Mike Vrabel doesn’t count as he didn’t vacate a Patriots coordinator job for unknown pastures. He retired as a linebacker in 2010, coached in college and coordinated in the NFL before landing a head coaching gig (as of 9/9/18, 0-1).

Teams can interview any assistant coaches from other teams who are not in the playoffs. They must, however, request permission if a coach is under contract with another team. Teams are also allowed to interview assistant coaches who have a first-round bye in the playoffs. However, the interview must take place that week. Candidates can choose to decline the interview to focus on preparing their current team for the postseason.

If an assistant coach’s team loses in the Wild Card round, the candidate can interview with any team that goes through the proper channels to secure an interview. However, if the assistant coach’s team wins, teams need approval for an interview, which has to take place before the divisional round.

No initial interviews can be requested or granted for candidates whose teams are still in the playoffs after the divisional round, i.e. anyone from the four teams vying for a conference championship.
— SB Nation, 1/10/17

Yeah, like this is faithfully adhered to.

Sad how the NFL’s so-called “anti-tampering policy” is respected more on the college coaching level than on it’s own, especially during what’s arguably the most important part of the season.

This is an unnecessary distraction inflicted by losing franchises on teams that should be preparing for the well-earned chance at the Super Bowl. This unfortunately happens and repeatedly every season as the teams contacting these coaches aren’t affected because they weren’t good enough to get past December.

The Patriots lost Super Bowl XXXI to the Packers after it was announced, the week prior, that their head coach would be leaving to coach the Jets. Could this have also affected the Vikings who got humiliated in the NFC Championship?

That was then; this is now….

Vikings offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur named head coach of Giants
Steelers Todd Haley is the new Browns offensive coordinator
Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, Colts, Heading Towards Second Interview For Head Coach Position
NE special teams coordinator Joe Judge may join fellow departing Patriots assistant coaches

And can a coach effectively concentrate on two teams at the same time, one of his teams now in the Super Bowl?

Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, Soon-to-be Lions head coach, reportedly already letting assistants go

At the end of every National Football League, “Black Monday” is the prelude to the sabotage of those teams that were competent enough to make it to the playoffs. With nothing to lose, owners and team general managers begin that search for someone, anyone, to take their teams from perennial losers to playoff hunters. But by doing so, they’re interfering with the chemistry of a team now trying to concentrate on winning a Super Bowl and the losers could care less.

If a team can endure a 17-week season of mediocrity or worse, it can wait another five weeks until the best teams play towards that big game undisturbed by losers.

2018 UPDATE

It didn’t take more than a few hours after the official end of the 2018 regular season for the interference to begin anew.

Green Bay Packers expected to request permission to interview Patriots play-callers Josh McDaniels, Brian Flores

Again, teams that couldn’t complete the mission disrupting those in the current process of winning.