EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – Colin Kaepernick has a door open to return to the NFL in what could be a grand reunion together with his former coach, Jim Harbaugh.
However right here’s the twist: Whereas Kaepernick, 36, just lately advised Sky Sports activities that he nonetheless needs to play within the NFL, the brand new Los Angeles Chargers coach contends that he needs his former quarterback again within the NFL as a member of his teaching workers – and never a lot as a participant.
“If that was ever the trail he was to take, I believe that will be great,” Harbaugh advised USA TODAY Sports activities. “He’d be an amazing coach, if that’s the trail he selected.”
Throughout an interview following a coaching camp follow final week, Harbaugh stated shortly after he returned to the NFL in January, he talked to Kaepernick about becoming a member of the Chargers in a non-playing capability. But within the months since, there’s been no motion on the likelihood.
“Yeah, we talked somewhat bit about it,” Harbaugh stated. “He’s contemplating it. He was in a foreign country. He stated he was going to get again to me. We haven’t reconnected since then. That was early, early within the 12 months.”
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Maybe Kaepernick’s purpose for not following up with Harbaugh was made crystal clear together with his feedback to the London-based tv community. He needs to renew his taking part in profession, regardless of a niche of seven years since he final performed within the NFL – apparently blackballed by the league after igniting protests through the nationwide anthem in 2016 by kneeling on the sideline.
Kaepernick, who protested police brutality and the killing of unarmed Black males, sued the NFL for collusion and reached an undisclosed settlement. But he has by no means wavered from the place that he wished to renew his taking part in profession.
“We’re nonetheless coaching, nonetheless pushing,” Kaepernick advised Sky Sports activities. “So, hopefully. We’ve simply obtained to get one among these workforce house owners to open up.”
Harbaugh has been one among Kaepernick’s greatest supporters through the years, even to the purpose of as soon as arranging for an open exercise throughout a spring sport on the College of Michigan whereas Kaepernick was seemingly exiled from the NFL.
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In spite of everything, theirs was a bond constructed on a basis of success. Shortly after Harbaugh started his stint as San Francisco 49ers coach in 2011, Kaepernick began his six-year NFL profession with the workforce as a second-round choose from Nevada. In the course of the 2012 season, they mixed on a march to Tremendous Bowl 47, the place the 49ers narrowly misplaced to the Baltimore Ravens within the historic matchup that pitted Jim towards his brother John within the first Tremendous Bowl teaching conflict involving brothers. The next season, the 49ers superior to the NFC title sport.
“He’s one among my favourite gamers that I’ve ever coached,” Harbaugh stated. “Love Colin.”
Whereas Harbaugh has no reservations about bringing Kaepernick aboard as an assistant coach (or maybe a marketing consultant) on a Chargers workers that already contains three former 49ers gamers who performed beneath Harbaugh in San Francisco (NaVorro Bowman, Jonathan Goodwin and Will Tukuafu), he hasn’t spoken of the prospect of permitting his former quarterback an opportunity to revive his taking part in profession. Harbaugh, by way of a workforce spokesman, declined to remark when requested by USA TODAY Sports activities this week about Kaepernick’s want to go well with up once more.
In fact, that’s the supply that Kaepernick needs to listen to.
“I imply, it’s one thing I’ve educated my complete life for,” Kaepernick advised Sky Sports activities when requested what it could imply to play once more. “So, to have the ability to step again on the sector could be a serious second, a serious accomplishment for me. I believe it’s one thing that I might convey loads to a workforce and assist them win a championship.”
If Kaepernick demonstrated that his abilities stay intact, the Chargers might absolutely use him – as an choice behind franchise quarterback Justin Herbert.
In the intervening time, Herbert is rehabbing from a plantar fascia damage to his proper foot and is projected to be prepared for the Sept. 8 opener towards the Raiders. Provided that the three different quarterbacks in camp vying for backup roles – Easton Stick, Max Duggan and Luis Perez – are unproven or unimpressive, the timing to think about Kaepernick seemingly strains up.
That’s, if Harbaugh wished to actually assume exterior the field and assess whether or not his former quarterback nonetheless has the ability to contribute in a league that has no scarcity of mediocre backup quarterbacks.
No, Harbaugh’s noble thought to lure Kaepernick again to the NFL as a coach won’t be sufficient.
Harbaugh indicated that Kaepernick’s inglorious exit from the NFL – for which the league needs to be ashamed of – wouldn’t be a problem for him if the quarterback opted to return in a training capability. The Chargers coach is keenly conscious of Kaepernick’s stature as a civil rights activist and the respect earned with a big swath of society.
“I see him as a hero,” Harbaugh stated. “Heroes get no days off. And he’s being a hero proper now and he’s not getting any days off. It’s not for me to decide on what path he takes. That’s his resolution.”
Then once more, if Kaepernick is decided to attempt to play once more earlier than deciding whether or not he needs to take his former coach up on his supply to teach, Harbaugh, too, seemingly faces a heavy resolution.