Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is still searching for work in the NFL. Last night, a crowd of more than 1,000 Kaepernick supporters gathered outside of the NFL's headquarters in New York City, demanding that he be signed by the start of the NFL's regular season just three weeks from now.
In addition to speeches made at the rally, NAACP interim president, Derrick Johnson, also penned a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, stating that it's "no sheer coincidence'' that Kaepernick still isn't on an NFL roster.
Per ESPN,
"No player should be victimized and discriminated against because of his exercise of free speech,'' Johnson said. "To do so is in violation of his rights under the Constitution and the NFL's own regulations."
Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy recently weighed in on the subject as well, saying the free agent QB is still out of a job not only because of his national anthem protest, but because he's just an "OK" player and not worth the distraction that he brings.
Speaking with reporters today, McCoy says he believes in freedom of speech, but added players can "choose a better platform to state their beliefs." In talking specifically about Kaepernick, Shady says,
"You just got to look at all sides, like if I'm an owner, or the GM of a team, do I want to put him on my team? Is he good enough to be on the squad, to even deal with everything that's going on? That's something that I don't really partake in," McCoy said.
"Take a guy like Michael Vick who went through all that he went through. He's 10 times better than Kaepernick. So you'll deal with that situation. You'll deal with that attention, the media aspect of it, the good the bad attention to it compared to Kaepernick, he's really not that good of a player."
McCoy added that if it were a star player, such as Tom Brady or Odell Beckham Jr., teams would be more willing to take on the distraction but that's not the case with Colin Kaepernick.
Although he's still out of a job, Kaepernick has continued his charitable work, recently donating $34,000 to J. Cole's Foundation as well as $33,000 to the Lower East Side Girls Club in NYC and $33,000 to 100 suits for 100 men. He has now reportedly donated $800,000 of his $1 million pledge.
Check out the footage of LeSean McCoy's comments below.
