When other quarterbacks get workouts or sign contracts with teams instead of Colin Kaepernick, there are semi-plausible ways to distinguish the situation based on football principles. When Robert Griffin III draws interest from the Chargers and Kaepernick doesn’t, it’s impossible to explain the interest in one and not the other.
Unless, of course, the Chargers are deliberately shying away from Kaepernick for the reasons that many assume teams are shying away from Kaepernick -- because he used the platform provided by an NFL team to lead a movement.
Kaepernick has achieved far more from a football standpoint than Griffin, who simply hasn’t been able to adjust his game to the pro level, where he can’t ran away from trouble like he did in high school and at Baylor. At the NFL level, he gets hit and he gets hurt and he hasn’t done squat since before injuring his knee against the Ravens as a rookie.
No one would suggest he has mastered a pro style offense. He’s roughly the same kind of quarterback that Kaepernick has been, and the Chargers being interested in the lesser option who has roughly the same skill set makes the decision to shun Kaepernick for either political or clumsily-justified business reasons obvious.
Sure, the Chargers may be concerned about alienating the L.A. market at a time when two teams are vying for the same hearts, minds, and wallets. But there’s also a way to argue that signing Kaepernick would give the Chargers an edge by immediately attracting the many fans in Southern California who would embrace Kaepernick’s activism.
Regardless of whether the reasons reflect prudence or wrong-headedness, the Chargers taking a look at Griffin and not Kaepernick confirms the idea that Kaepernick’s unemployment isn’t about football -- and it definitely isn’t about catering to the many fans who would deem his non-football efforts to be a reason for becoming a fan of the L.A. Chargers.