Unemployed quarterback has No. 17 jersey for May

Posted by Mike Florio on June 11, 2017, 2:14 PM EDT
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I wonder if John Mara will be getting any letters about this.

Colin Kaepernick, an unemployed NFL pariah whom teams won’t sign for a variety of stated reasons that aren’t partially or totally true, is still selling jerseys in the colors of the team for which he no longer plays. Specifically, he’s selling a lot of them.

The list of jersey sales for May 2017 shows Kaepernick’s 49ers jersey at No. 17. That’s higher than Broncos linebacker and Super Bowl 50 MVP Von Miller (No. 19), Falcons quarterback and 2016 NFL MVP Matt Ryan (No. 20), Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant (No. 20), Seahawks quarterback Russel Wilson (No. 21), Cowboys tight end Jason Witten (No. 22), Panthers quarterback and 2015 NFL MVP Cam Newton (No. 23), Saints quarterback and future Hall of Famer Drew Brees (No. 24), and new Saints running back and future Hall of Famer Adrian Peterson (No. 25), and all other players in the NFL who didn’t finish No. 1 through No. 16.

And so for anyone who points out that Kaepernick has detractors, don’t forget that he also has plenty of fans. Which could mean that Kaepernick’s unemployment has less to do with dollars and cents and more to do with the political sensibilities of the people who own NFL teams.

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57 responses to “Unemployed quarterback has No. 17 jersey for May”

  4. I don’t like the guy and I don’t want to see him play in the NFL. That said he’s done a LOT of “good works” for underrepresented segments of the population and I admire him as a person for that. I hope he’s making LOADS of money on jersey sales and other activities. I want him to make a good living I just don’t want to see him using National NFL TV to further his political viewpoints.

  6. We assume the list of sales is from NFL sources referring to licensed product sales. What is the total number and location of the sales? It’s impossible to tell the true fan support for Kaepernick without knowing the demographics of those purchasing the jerseys or the motivation (perhaps the jersey will become a memorabilia item). Like many I am so sick of Kaepernick stories that I’ll bypass any that mention him.

  7. Or it could be that no teams want to sign him because of the headache of his protests AND the money involved AND that he doesn’t fit into a typical offensive system. But then again, lawyers are always good at drumming up conspiracies.

  9. “Which could mean that Kaepernick’s unemployment has less to do with dollars and cents and more to do with the political sensibilities of the people who own NFL teams.”

    Or it could mean something you apparently fail to consider. Many of those jerseys are being sold to ‘fans’ that will never attend a game or even watch all that many. Season ticket sales and ratings success are driven by the people that do. The disaffected do love to proclaim it in their wardrobe choices, after all pig socks, Che Guevara and Castro shirts sell too and their purveyors also laugh all the way to bank just like NFL Properties. Kaepernick’s peeps sure are showing the man, lmao.

  11. You want a team to sign someone because he can sell jerseys to the intellectually challenged? Am I the only who remembers he had a game last year against the bears where he had four yards passing? He was negative passing yards after accounting for sack yardage. Even my lowly Jags beat the bears.

  12. No need to purchase one. You can have mine. Let me dig it out from the back of my closet. As a 49er fan, I thought he was a good quarterback who made the offense around him better… and then he refused to stand for the National Anthem … and that, my friend, has made all the difference

  15. Bubba McBubba had a beef with standing for the National Anthem because of what that flag represents to him in the deaths of scores of his relatives in the 1860’s.

    Bubba made it clear that he would not stand when the National Anthem was played. And so he did.

    There were other pro football athletes who also shared his viewpoint that an overreaching federal government subverted State’s rights and that some even had relatives killed like Bubba defending those rights.

    Bubba found himself unemployed as a result and opined that he was being blackballed because he was a State’s right advocate.

    How would this be any different than what is happening to Colon Krappernick?

    While both do not specify a racial supremacy to either viewpoints, we can conclude that there is.

    Both did not protest on their own time – they did so on their employer’s time and dime.

  16. “Which could mean that Kaepernick’s unemployment has less to do with dollars and cents and more to do with the political sensibilities of the people who own NFL teams.”

    Or, it could be that the people who own NFL teams have seen him play…

  17. deneb1973 says:
    Jun 11, 2017 2:47 PM
    Like many I am so sick of Kaepernick stories that I’ll bypass any that mention him.

    ——————-

    Yet the first thing you do is comment on this story about Kaepernick. I don’t think bypass means what you think it means.

  18. Bad QB who’s jersey sale numbers are likely being falsely reported just like numerous other things in this country these days. Even if it somehow is legit who actually cares? Let people who want to buy a jersey, buy a jersey. Whatever makes them happy. He still is a backup, borderline third string QB in this league.

  20. It’s also one of the cheapest. It’s 40% off on NFLshop.com only Alton Smith and Vernon Davis have cheaper men’s jerseys listed.

  23. I will entertain other arguments, but for those who say he isnt getting signed because he simply is not good enough to be on an NFL roster… just remember that Blaine Gabbert got signed this off season… The guy who played 100 times worse than Kap on the same team lol. So that argument is out the window. It is obvious he is getting embargoed in a way, and maybe he deserves it or whatever, it was a risk and he knew what could happen. But be an adult and put your thinking cap(Kap get it?) on admit thats why it is happening to him.

  24. I’m not a 9ers fan, but if I were, I wouldn’t pass on the opportunity to get a team jersey. I’d assume, considering he’s not on the team, you could snag one for pretty cheap. Just pay and have your own name sewn/ironed on it. Boom! Cheap, personalized, official NFL jersey.

  26. His jerseys must have been on the $1 rack. I’m so sick of hearing about this guy, just please go away

  28. They are not being sold because of his prowess as a football player. Which is the point as to why he is not on a team.

  30. My favourite is Jason Witten being on that list. He’s been playing for the Cowboys for 14 years. Who’s just getting around to buying his jersey now? “You know that Witten kid is pretty good. Looks like he’s probably gonna be around for a while. I think I’ll get one of his jerseys”

    Brady I can understand because he keeps winning Super Bowls and that obviously attracts new fans to the game. Enough people still buying witten jerseys a decade and a half in to put him in the top 25 just seems odd to me.

  31. Probably the same leftist millennials who wear the chic Che or Red Star of China t-shirts on liberal campuses across the country.

  32. maestro1899 says:

    This shows that a number of people support Kaepernick, regardless of what the loud, hypocritical posters here think.
    ======================================

    Yes, we know a “number” supports him. Florio is practically his agent. But we also know the vast majority to not support him.

  34. Ya, it’s the owner’s politics that’s keepin this man down, n sendin a message to da rest a da NFL ‘slaves’.

    Except even the leftist owners won’t touch him either.

    AFAIC, if Kap didn’t do his protest and wear pig/cop socks and offend the Miami Cubans with his Castro shirt and apologies, I’d view him as a backup, with some desperate teams willing to try a reclamation project with him in hopes he can return to his former glory as a starter. But these are always the bad teams who have bad ideas, so it wouldn’t have worked out anyway.

  35. ctchiefsfan says:

    I don’t like the guy and I don’t want to see him play in the NFL. That said he’s done a LOT of “good works” for underrepresented segments of the population and I admire him as a person for that.
    ======================================

    Yeah, last month he told 200 black kids in Chicago that they’re all oppressed. Good work, there. Makes them feel positive about life.

  36. poison66 says:
    Jun 11, 2017 4:30 PM
    His jerseys must have been on the $1 rack. I’m so sick of hearing about this guy, just please go away

    ———-
    Not a dollar but low. His sales spiked up when they went on the clearance rack (you can check me on this online) as most things do. Besically they are dumping old stock and this story is trying to make that into something more than it is.

    What will be meaningful is if they have to print up more. So buy up guys. This is the chance to make that statement even if it means parting with a few bucks.

  37. “Like many I am so sick of Kaepernick stories that I’ll bypass any that mention him.”

    Which is why you clicked the link for this one and commented on it.

    Lolz

  38. Still waiting on that PFT post declaring for a certainty what Kap’s contract demands are. That will surely explain why he hasn’t been signed.

  42. I’m guessing a lot of the people buying jerseys are doing it for political reasons, much like how Michael Moore started donning a 49ers cap. These people don’t go to games, they don’t watch on TV and you can bet the owners aren’t remotely lost on that. They know where their bread is buttered and it won’t be from a temporary fad like the Tim Tebow experience did.

  43. It is also possible many are buying his jersey as the beginning of camping season starts and the need starter fuel for the campfire .

  45. I wish I cared enough to threaten to boycott something because someone did something that makes no impact on my life.

  46. So now we can stop hearing about the NFL is depriving CK of his “livelihood”. Right. On that related subject, if there is a 10-15% chance that CK is driving down attendance at games, that would deprive the actual livelihood of concessionaires and ticket takers. People who actually need the money to survive. Not a guy who has cashed out $100 million from the NFL. But hey, CK is bigger than the game, bigger than the team, bigger than the people who work the games that are struggling to earn a living.

  47. When it comes pft what always trips me out is how the articles are progressive and somewhat forward thinking. But most of the readers with opinions live in the heart of Trumptopia(aka a bunch a stoopid white trash hicks). Interesting dichotomy for a website. I don’t understand the economic game plan. Good luck though, it does seem to be working.

  48. have any of these people so opposed to him even heard the slavery advocating stanzas of the anthem, which was written by a slaveowner?

    and please don’t offer up the hoary old excuse that this is the way things were back then, because EVERYONE is born which an innate sense of what is good or evil regardless of what circumstances they are born into;

    right is right and wrong is wrong regardless of when..a song that aspires to be our national anthem yet advocates so completely immoral and indefensible condition as human enslavement should be repaired or replaced;

    that is precisely what was done to perhaps the greatest document ever written by modern man–our Constitution…is it really too much to ask the same improvements be made to the national anthem, or is that too ‘leftist’ and ‘liberal’?

  49. Makes sense…the listing is by units sold and all CK jerseys are now on clearance for $1.99…probably a ton of people picked up rags to wash their cars.

  50. If the owners are blackballing Kaep for his anthem protests… why are other players who sat during the natnional anthem, such as Brandon Marshall, Eric Reid, Kenny Stills, Jelani Jenkins, and Jeremy Lane still employed?

    I think you know the answer to this question.

  52. Here’s the root of the Kaepernick situation:

    Kap’s stats last year per game:

    Completions – 16.3
    Completion Percentage – 59.2%
    Passing yards – 186.75
    TDs – 1.33
    Int – 0.33

    Now let’s pick another random scrub competing for a QB job…Trevor Siemian:

    Completions – 20.6
    Completion Percentage – 59.5%
    Passing yards – 242.9
    TDs – 1.28
    Int – 0.71

    Those are markedly similar stat lines. Siemian is more productive, Kap more efficient.

    That said, would anyone be confused as to why a free agent Trevor Siemian is not being given a contract in June? Now make him 29 and somewhat controversial.

    More than anything, it shows that you can get Kap’s production from cheaper, less disruptive players.

  53. That is interesting that people are still buying his 49er jersey. I am not a fan of what Kaep did, but if he ends up in a Bears jersey (which is unlikely, of course), I’d be fine if someone bought be a Kaep Bears jersey, and would wear it.

    Although I’m not going to buy one. Not just Kaep’s jersey, but any jersey. Have you seen how much they are? Crazy. No thanks. I’m cheap.

  54. “Which could mean that Kaepernick’s unemployment has less to do with dollars and cents and more to do with the political sensibilities of the people who own NFL teams.”

    ————-

    The fact that you don’t see a direct correlation between his political sensibilities and the dollars and cents is laughable. People buying his jersey are doing so for political reasons and will spend exactly $0.00 this year buying tickets and beer. However, those fans that plan on taking in a game or two wouldn’t be caught dead in that piece of trash’s jersey. So, simple math my friend. Simple math.

  55. Politics should not be in the NFL. If anyone thinks about it Colin Kaepernicks protest is not about politics. He admits that he did not even vote. His protest is about Equal Human Rights and people being mistreated. If you have a problem with every human being treated equally with respect then you need to look at what kind of Human Being you are.

  56. Yeah, and I can buy a Brett Favre Viking jersey for $8, but that doesn’t mean he should be the quarterback.

  57. He’s unemployed and his jersey is for sale on NFL dot com for $7.50 on clearance.

    Ya’ think that has something to do with the sales? Lol

    …..nice try slanting it tho.

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