Is outspoken Colin Kaepernick being blackballed by NFL owners?

If there’s one person who embodies the craziness of the 2017 NFL season, it’s Colin Kaepernick.

Colin Kaepernick, centre, takes a knee during the American anthem at Levi's Stadium in 2016 when he was with the San Francisco 49ers.

Houston. Green Bay. Arizona. These are just a few of the teams that needed help at quarterback this season after injuries claimed stars Deshaun Watson, Aaron Rodgers and Carson Palmer.

TJ Yates. Joe Callahan. Matt Barkley. These are just a few of the quarterbacks those teams signed to plug those holes.

One player, the most polarising one in the NFL, has been conspicuously absent: Colin Kaepernick. In an injury-plagued season, there has been a lot of employment opportunity for NFL quarterbacks. But not for Kaepernick, the player who launched the controversial national anthem protests last season.

Since Kaepernick parted ways with the San Francisco 49ers in March, 62 other quarterbacks have been signed to NFL teams, according to Stats LLC. That number jumps to 84 when including quarterbacks signed off practice squads. Only two of them have posted a higher quarterback rating in 2017 than Kaepernick’s 2016 rating. In all, 70 quarterbacks have taken a snap this season.

If there’s one person who embodies the craziness of the 2017 NFL season, it’s Kaepernick — the player who didn’t play. The protests he kicked off last year by kneeling during the national anthem took on a new life in September when President Donald Trump attacked them. The league’s response to the protests became a flashpoint that fuelled dissension about team owners and a debate about whether the protests are hurting TV ratings and live attendance.

Meanwhile, fans all season have decried the poor state of quarterback play in the league — which Kaepernick potentially could have boosted, at least for one team. Instead, he has spent the season working out and attending to his various social causes.

Now, it’s clear the 2017 season will finish without Kaepernick taking the field. Throughout the season, the Wall Street Journal has documented comments from coaches, executives and owners across the league when they have been asked, in effect, why. About two-thirds of the 32 teams have weighed in with some perspective.

Some said they were simply happy with their internal options. Others have said they preferred a quarterback with some familiarity with their offence. One coach noted he’s “a good football player” but noted he “hasn’t played football in a while.” Kaepernick, of course, says there is a darker reason for this. In October, he filed a grievance against the league and all 32 teams that alleges a straightforward explanation: collusion.

The grievance says Kaepernick has been essentially blackballed because of his outspoken political views, which entered the spotlight last year when he started taking a knee during the national anthem to call attention to racial injustices and social issues. It says that since Kaepernick became a free agent, no team has even invited him for a workout.

That grievance, which will be heard by an arbitrator, is just getting underway. Kaepernick’s lawyers are in the process of discovery, which includes materials such as emails and text messages from owners and other executives. A person familiar with the matter said depositions are expected to begin around late January.

The NFL has declined to comment on the grievance, citing a confidentiality clause for grievances in the collective bargaining agreement.

“The case for collusion is the case of common sense,” said Ben Meiselas, a lawyer representing Kaepernick for Geragos & Geragos APC. “This is not only a fight for Colin, but for all professional athletes.”

From a cold, numerical perspective, Kaepernick’s case to be signed is simple. A second-round pick in the 2011 draft by the 49ers, he took the team to the Super Bowl in his second season and the NFC Championship game a year after that. His combination of arm strength and speed made him a near-instant phenomenon.

In the last few years, he suffered some injuries while San Francisco took a downturn. The 49ers were just 1-10 in his 11 games as a starter in 2016. Still, he threw 16 touchdowns and only four interceptions.

His 90.7 passer rating was 17th best in the league. This season, it would rank 16th.

At the same time, he became the face of a movement that roiled the league. While some lauded it as a peaceful protest, others criticised it as unpatriotic.

After Trump fanned the flames in September — which resulted in more players than ever taking a knee in response — there was even talk of instituting a rule that would mandate that players have to stand during the anthem. That drew questions from sponsors at a time when the league has already been battling sagging ratings.

But simply proving that teams didn’t sign Kaepernick because of his political views isn’t the same as proving that they colluded to do so. Basically, the statistics on their own won’t be enough to make the case — the grievance will have to show a co-ordinated effort between parties to keep him from signing.

Still, Kaepernick’s level of production going untapped has only stood out even more during a season when the quarterback-driven NFL has been quarterback hungry. Many playoff contenders saw their starters go down. Nobody knows whether or not Kaepernick could have salvaged their seasons. Some pundits have noted Kaepernick’s style of play may not mesh with every offence. It also may have been a tall task to expect a quarterback to succeed mid-season without familiarity with a team’s offence and having not played since last season.

Kaepernick would potentially be much more expensive as well; he had a salary of $US11.9 million in 2016.

None of that stopped him from becoming a shadow that loomed over pretty much every tenuous quarterback situation. After Rodgers went down with a broken collarbone in Green Bay, coach Mike McCarthy grew testy when asked about Kaepernick and noted the time Brett Hundley and Joe Callahan have spent with the organisation. “The quarterback room is exactly where it needs to be,” McCarthy said in October.

This phenomenon may have been on full display most prominently in Houston after Deshaun Watson went down for the season. After that, coach Bill O’Brien said the team discussed signing him.

“Colin Kaepernick’s a good football player, (but he) hasn’t played football in a while,” O’Brien said.

The Wall Street Journal