A sad excuse of a man
And donāt get me started on Belichick
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go boil your head.
Murderer.
Fuck NFL.
CFL is where its at
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Canadians saying the word āoutā 
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Watson needed that after a shakey start coming off last weeks disaster.
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A proper game of ball.
How do you leave Hopkins that open?
Itās poor enough. Hyde and Williams arenāt gonna scare anyone, little enough in it but Deshaun will probably come up with enough splash plays to win it
Garrett claims that Mason Rudolph called him a ******* during the brawl that saw Garrett derived of his livelihood indefinitly. If true Rudolph should just admit it and let the chips fall where they may.
And if untrue?
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Kawakami: The facts and myths about Colin Kaepernickās last 49ers season and what they tell us about him now
By Tim Kawakami Nov 19, 2019
545 
If you werenāt there, if you didnāt watch a single practice, didnāt step into the locker room, didnāt ask a question and didnāt actually ever speak to Colin Kaepernick the last time he played in the NFL, I guess itās pretty easy to make hollow conclusions about what happened in 2016 and what it means about his credibility as a person and quarterback now.
If you donāt know what it was like to be around the 49ers back then, with Chip Kelly as the coach, Trent Baalke as the general manager and the roster falling apart around everyone, it must be simple to imagine whatever you want about those days.
Fine. Thatās up to you. Everybody has an opinion on Kaepernick as a player and social activist, his desire to play in the NFL again, the latest odd developments with the league-organized workout in Atlanta last weekend and Kaepernickās decision to skip it over various issues and hold his own workout 60 miles away.
Maybe you respect him or despise him or think thereās too much fuss about him or are convinced heās a hero. Nothing any of us says or writes probably will change any of that now. Itās all fair game and Kaepernick has never ordered anybody to do anything except act according to their consciences.
However, I was there during the 2016 season. I watched many of the training-camp practices when he was recovering from two offseason surgeries but competing with Blaine Gabbert for the starting job. I was in the locker room for almost every one of Kaepernickās media sessions after he began to kneel during the national anthem to protest for those who have been and continue to be oppressed.
I watched every one of his plays, either in person or on television. I spoke to people around the 49ers, with the 49ers, around the league and around the sports world through all of this. I certainly wasnāt the only media member in the middle of it, but 95 percent of the people now claiming to know exactly what happened back then werenāt there at all.
Theyāre guessing. Theyāre surmising. Theyāre pasting in their own agendas and trying to sell it as true history. Theyāre wrong, almost every step of the way. And I do feel some responsibility to set the record as straight as possible, three seasons later, because I see so many incorrect statements about the events of 2016. The truth is always relevant. History is important. Make-believe history is always dangerous and unhelpful.
You can judge it however you want, but I think itās time to try to highlight some important accurate parts of Kaepernickās 2016 experiences, debunk some prevailing myths and try to understand how they relate to the situation in its current state.
Note: Iām going through these in order of relevance right now, not in chronological order.
After the first frenzy of headlines over the protest, it wasnāt actually much of a circus
Sure, there was a lot of commotion and controversy in the first few weeks in late August and early September after Kaepernick first explained why he was protesting. There were definitely some teammates who didnāt understand why he needed to bring all this attention to the team. Several rolled their eyes when Kaepernick, headed toward a backup quarterback role to start the season, would draw 25 reporters and five camera crews. And the news conference after the exhibition finale in San Diego on Sept. 1, right after the protest turned into international news, absolutely was a circus.
There were actually questions to ask and Kaepernick was all too willing to answer every single one of them in every single session. I know. I ran out of questions one time later in the season when he lingered at his locker after the group session. I looked at my notebook, waved my hands and we both shrugged. Nobody else asked anything.
Yeah, Iāve been involved with a lot of circus atmospheres in locker rooms and around teams and that was not one of them.
And after a few weeks, even that mostly died down to a small trickle of reporters waiting to talk to Kaepernick. Then Kaepernick replaced Gabbert as the starter in Week 6, so there was another rush of attention; eventually, that calmed down, too.
What was the fan reaction during all this? I was on the field before most of the home games and I never heard Kaepernick booed even once. Mostly, I remember very loud cheers, fans lining up to get his autograph and take pictures and opposing players coming up to thank and support him.
Did Kaepernick draw boos and catcalls on the road? Sure. Sometimes it got quite harsh. But doesnāt every notable opponent get booed and catcalled at some point on the road? Why would that be worrisome to any team that needs a backup QB?
Do you think the Patriots should cut Tom Brady because theyāre worried he might get booed and jeered on the road? Isnāt that a distraction? Should Seattle do the same with Russell Wilson?
Yes, if Kaepernick signs with an NFL team this season, next season or whenever, itāll be a circus for the first few days. It could be especially bonkers when his team goes on the road.
But how can it be bigger than it was in 2016, when it first happened, when nobody had ever done this before on this kind of stage, when President-elect Trump blasted him, when he became the 49ers starter a few weeks later ā¦ and then it all settled down after about a month?
It canāt be bigger than it was in 2016. When and if Kaepernick signs with a team this year or next, heāll be a very famous backup QB, for sure. And after a few weeks, it wonāt be that much to deal with on an everyday basis, the same way it eventually wasnāt a distraction in 2016.
There was no schism in the locker room
Initially and understandably, there was some grumbling by a few 49ers players, who were as surprised as anybody to be thrust into the middle of this. But after the protest became public, Kaepernick asked to speak to the entire team, answered all questions and convinced the locker room that he was sincere and standing up for things everybody could believe in. Maybe several teammates didnāt agree with the way he was doing it, but they agreed that he was doing this from the heart, and that part they all could support.
That did not change throughout the season. The 49ers were terrible and Kaepernick was the starter for 11 of the games, but the 49ers were horrible the season before, too, and the roster was even worse in 2016. They all realized it. They were going to lose whoever played QB. The anthem protest was a part of that lost season, but it sure wasnāt the cause of it.
And in a gesture that I believe hit home with his teammates, Kaepernick pledged to donate $1 million to charities that serve oppressed communities, showing us all the receipts as he made the payments.
So, at the end of the season, in a bit of a surprise to outsiders (including me), Kaepernick was voted the Len Eshmont Award winner as the teamās most inspirational player, which, as the 49ers always say themselves, is the franchiseās most prestigious award.
If Kaepernick was half the distraction that his current critics say he was back in 2016, he wouldāve never gotten this support. If several teammates thought he was only doing this for himself, he wouldnāt have been anywhere close to winning.
Important point: The Eshmont winners immediately previous to Kaepernick were Justin Smith in 2011 and 2012, NaVorro Bowman in 2013, Frank Gore in 2014 and Anquan Boldin in 2015. The winners immediately after Kaepernick won: Marquise Goodwin in 2017 and DeForest Buckner in 2018.
This is not an award given out thoughtlessly in the 49ersā locker room.
Kaepernick wasnāt great in 2016, but he wasnāt terrible, either
No, contrary to one of the great myths of 2016, Kaepernick did not get beaten out by Gabbert in training camp. Kelly was very clear about this. I know because I kept asking Kelly throughout the summer ā before and after Kaepernick started kneeling. Remember, there was some controversy surrounding Kaepernick going into camp. He was coming back from two operations and we were all wondering how he fit with Kellyās offense and under the auspices of a front office that tried to get rid of him the previous spring.
But Kelly had no reason to do anything except pick the best QB. And he never wavered from the conclusion that Kaepernick was superior to Gabbert, except when Kaepernick wasnāt yet fully recovered from the surgeries to his right thumb and left knee.
Gabbert got the start in the first five regular-season games because Kaepernick wasnāt at full strength. Then once Kelly figured that Kaepernick was healthy enough, he benched Gabbert and started Kaepernick in Week 6 against Buffalo and stayed with Kaepernick simply because Kaepernick was the better QB.
If you watched any single day of camp, and I watched almost all of them, it wasnāt even close. Meanwhile, Jeff Driskel, the teamās sixth-round pick that year, was battling for a roster spot that camp, and he was one of the worst drafted players Iāve ever seen take snaps in an NFL camp, so it was no shock at all that Driskel was cut before the regular season.
Yes, thereās a reason Iāve circled Gabbert and Driskel as two inferior QBs who still quite securely have NFL jobs while Kaepernick is unemployed and having to figure out exactly what the NFL was trying to pull on him with that planned workout last weekend.
No, the league didnāt āfigure Kaepernick outā
Iāve heard and seen this argument time and again by those trying to delete the significance of Kaepernickās career before 2016, including his three road playoff victories, his 27-20 regular-season record as a starter before 2016 and the fear he regularly put into defenses when he had the ball and was ready to take off.
He wasnāt quite the same player in 2016, but again, he was coming off finger and knee surgeries and he clearly needed time to regain his weight and strength in training camp.
And still: Kaepernick finished the season with a 16-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio, which wasnāt bad when he was racing around with little protection and his receivers were Jeremy Kerley, Quinton Patton, Torrey Smith and Rod Streater.
The 49ers went 1-10 with Kaepernick as the starter that season. But that was a two-win team in every measurable way. He got one of the wins in Week 16. Gabbert got the other in Week 1. If you want to blame anybody for their record, blame Trent Baalke and Jed York.
And oh, by the way, Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman is doing a lot of the same stuff with Lamar Jackson in Baltimore that he did as Kaepernickās 49ers offensive coordinator in 2012 and 2013. Does it look like the league has figured Jackson out?
When he was good, mostly before 2016, he was breathtaking
He wasnāt always good. He made some mistakes. It would be wrong to say that Kaepernick was ever the ideal QB when he played and might be the ideal QB now that heās been out for more than two seasons.
But donāt discredit what he did at his peak, when he was piling up victories for the 49ers in 2012 and 2013, because itās more than most of the QBs playing now have ever done. A short postseason summary: Three career road playoff victories, including leading a rally in Atlanta in the NFC Championship Game after the 2012 season, and that record-breaking 181-yard rushing performance against Green Bay earlier in that postseason.
Heās still only 32 years old. He has thrown 72 career regular-season TDs and only 30 interceptions and has a career 88.9 passer rating. Heās run for 2,300 yards in the regular season. Heās run for 507 more in the postseason. Yeah, that seems to be slightly better than Gabbert, who was drafted ahead of Kaepernick in 2011 and has remained gainfully employed throughout his career (with 48 career TD passes, 47 career interceptions and a career 71.7 passer rating).
The 49ers saw no notable hit in revenue with him on the team in 2016
Would signing Kaepernick now hurt a teamās ticket sales? Well, how much business did the Eagles lose when they signed Mike Vick in 2009 after he had missed two seasons after his 2007 conviction and jail term for running a dogfighting operation? Not much, if at all. And Kaepernick has done nothing comparable to Vick, of course.
Leviās Stadium was half-empty for the Kaepernick games, but that wasnāt because of Kaepernick. Leviās was half-empty for games in 2015, too, when the 49ers stank. And it was half-empty in 2017, after Kaepernick was gone, when they stank.
The stinking is the main thing here.
Do I need to point out that domestic abusers, PED users, violent offenders and other felons have all been welcomed back to the NFL at times? I donāt think anybodyās crying for the ticket sales or ratings of any of those teams.
Kaepernickās contract talks with Denver came in April 2016, months before the protest
Kaepernickās critics ā apparently cued by some misleading statements by Broncos executive John Elway ā conflate the timing on this. Kaepernick talked to Denver months before his protest began, when he was hoping for a trade from the 49ers. The Kaepernick critics argue that turning down the Broncosā offer proved that Kaepernick only wanted huge money or didnāt love the game or just wanted to protest.
But wait: The protest hadnāt even started yet. And this wasnāt about Kaepernick deciding to pass on an NFL contract. He already had one for the upcoming season.
All this occurred in the months before the 2016 training camp, when there was a lack of trust between Kaepernick and the 49ers front office, tied largely to the belief that Kaepernick was Jim Harbaughās guy. Of course, Harbaugh had been banished by the 49ers after the 2014 season.
Kaepernick also wasnāt an easy guy to know back then; at times, he was rude to the media, team executives and staffers; he told me during the 2016 season that he was finding his own voice in the previous years and developing his belief system and just didnāt feel comfortable speaking much while his thoughts werenāt yet fully formed.
But anyway, the 49ers and Broncos talked trade and the Broncos offered to do it if Kaepernick would take a reduced salary, down to $7 million. Again, Kaepernick was already guaranteed $11.9 million. He declined the reduction, returned to the 49ers and played for the $11.9 million.
So how is turning down $4.9 million less and playing for the full salary proof of anything except logical thinking?
Kaepernick took the heat for a team that was plenty dysfunctional without him
Throughout the 2015 season, Kaepernick was singled out by āteam sourcesā as the main problem with the 49ers in exactly the same way Harbaugh was singled out the year before. Jim Tomsula was the coach, yet āteam sourcesā wanted to point the finger at Kaepernick (and Harbaugh).
But the Kaepernick criticism was likely leaked by Baalke, who had his own quirks and trust issues. And this line was parroted by those who wanted to butter up Baalke or were buddies with Baalke or both.
I donāt think heās doing this out of martyrdom
Kaepernick believes in things and he wants to play football. It is possible to do both. Many other players have tremendous interests outside of football and we embrace them for it. Charity work. Family. Music. Whatever it is.
Kaepernick has his own interests, which happen to hit the fault line of American discourse. He can also play football, if heās allowed to and if the mischaracterizations donāt continue to overpower all else.
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Where was the race card straight after the game? He has to wait until to the suspension until itās mentioned? Nope, not buying it.
Racist.
Clearly
Elbow injury for Brady, questionable for Sunday 
Heās out.
Can you tell me who, in the skill positions, is not listed as questionable?
Cowboys to take the W in Foxborough