Seattle Seahawks head coachPete Carroll regrets not signingColin Kaepernick back in 2017.- Carroll said he didn't feel the Seahawks were the "right fit" for Kaepernick at the time because Carroll "didn't see [Kaepernick] as a backup quarterback" and the team already had Pro Bowler Russell Wilson.
- "The fact that it didn't work out for us, I figured he was going to wind up starting somewhere for sure, and it just didn't happen," Carroll added.
- The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and outspoken activist was blackballed from the league after
kneeling during the national anthem as a form ofprotest against police brutality in the United States.
The death of George Floyd and our collective reckoning with race relations in America has shined a new light on Colin Kaepernick's national anthem protests back in 2016.
And at least one prominent
In a video conference on Thursday, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll admitted that, in hindsight, he wishes he and his team had added Kaepernick into their ranks when they had a visit in 2017.
"I regret that we weren't the one way back when that just did it just to do it," Carroll said. "Even though I thought that it wasn't the right fit necessarily for us at the time."
"I wish we would have contributed to it because the guy deserved to play," he added.
The 11-year Seattle head coach further explained that while he greatly admired Kaepernick's abilities, he expected his former division rival to compete for a starting role at quarterback. Since the Seahawks already had seven-time Pro Bowler Russell Wilson under center, Carroll figured there were better landing spots for Kaepernick out there.
"It wasn't going to be the open competitive situation that I like to think all of our spots are because Russ was such a dominant figure," Carroll said.
"I held [Kaepernick] 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 Russ," Carroll said. "It just didn't feel like it would fit right. That's the way I felt about it. So I just wish it would happen, and I wish we would have been a part of it when the time was available then."
"The fact that it didn't work out for us, I figured he was going to wind up starting somewhere for sure," Carroll added. "And it just didn't happen."
Of course, Kaepernick famously — and quite controversially — did not wind up with another team. The quarterback kneeled in protest of police brutality during the playing of the national anthem before NFL games when he played for the 49ers. Naysayers widely interpreted the gesture as a rejection of the American flag and an offense to military members. Still, Kaepernick repeatedly said he kneeled to shine a light on the disproportionate killings of unarmed black men by white police officers across the country.
Still, Kaepernick became an incredibly divisive figure and even drew the ire of President Donald Trump. NFL franchises — many of which are owned by Trump supporters and donors — were reluctant to sign the quarterback as a result. He and former teammate Eric Reid — who also kneeled during the anthem — settled with the league after suing for collusion. Kaepernick has not played in the league since.
"He was right on it," Carroll said Thursday. "He was right on the topics about police brutality and inequality, and he was right on the subject matter at the time. That's so obvious now where maybe all of the flak that flew about not honoring the flag and all the other things that were not even a part of the demonstration or what his intent was at all, that just skewed the whole discussion, I don't think that's around now. It's different at this time frame."
Carroll was presumably referring to the all-consuming reaction to the death of Floyd late last month.
Protests have cropped up across the country since, helping the Black Lives Matter movement gain momentum to a level never before seen in the United States. Floyd's death has had ripple effects in the world of
When it comes to Kaepernick potentially returning to the league once and for all, Carroll said he thinks there's some momentum working in the quarterback's favor.
"After all of the time, the years that have passed, I never received a phone call about it," Carroll said. "I never talked to another head coach about it. I never talked to anyone about it until today. I got a phone call today. I won't tell you who it was, but I got a phone call today asking inquiring about the situation, so I know somebody is interested. So we'll see what happens with that."
- Read more:
- The San Francisco 49ers participated in #BlackoutTuesday and fans are calling it hypocrisy after the treatment of Colin Kaepernick
- Drew Brees on NFL players kneeling next season: 'I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag'
- Florida State head coach Mike Norvell apologized after his own players called him out for lying about George Floyd conversations, avoiding a potential player walk-out
- NFL stars DeAndre Hopkins and Deshaun Watson have joined the call to remove a former US Vice President's name from Clemson's campus