As the country protests against police brutality, social injustice and systemic racism, the NFL surely is regretting its fallout with Colin Kaepernick.
That includes Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, who met with the former QB and current activist in 2017 and 2018 after Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers.
“I regret that we weren’t the one way back when that just did it just to do it, even though I thought that it wasn’t the right fit necessarily for us at the time,” Carroll said on a video conference with reporters Thursday, as transcribed by ESPN’s Brady Henderson.
“The reason it wasn’t the right fit is because I held him in such a high regard I didn’t see him as a backup quarterback and I didn’t want to put him in that situation with (Russell Wilson). It just didn’t feel like it would fit right. That’s the way I felt about it.
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“I wish we would have contributed to it because he deserved to play. … I wish we could have figured that out knowing what we know now, and given him the chance because I would love to see him play for all those years.’’
Kaepernick hasn’t played a game since 2016, the season he peacefully protested these social issues by kneeling during the national anthem before games.
After nothing transpired between him and Seattle after a second meeting in 2018, reports claimed the reason was because Kaepernick planned to continue his demonstrations.
Carroll denied that on the call, saying Kaepernick “was right on the topics about police brutality and inequality.”
But that being said, don’t expect to see him suit up a Seahawk uniform this season for the same alleged reasons the team didn’t give him a shot in 2017 or 2018.
“We’re kind of set up right now, so football-wise, it doesn’t seem to fit us, like I said,” Carroll said, referring to the team bringing in Geno Smith to back up Russell. “But there’s a lot of time here. We’ll see what happens.”
That we will, as Carroll claimed he recently received a call from a general manager who was interested in Kaepernick.
We’ll see if he’ll finally get to suit up after all this time, now that Kaepernick has emerged on the right side of history.
