Colin Kaepernick hasn’t retired, and now the league-owned website properly reflects that fact.
NFL.com has changed Kaepernick’s designation from “retired” to “UFA,” presumably after the incorrect verbiage was brought to light on Friday night.
“Thank you to everyone who held the @NFL accountable for falsely reporting that Colin ‘retired’ on their website,” his girlfriend, Nessa, tweeted. “They heard you loud [and] clear [because] the NFL put the accurate description that @Kaepernick7 is a Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA). Tell them to stop denying him employment.”
Changing “retired” to “UFA” is one thing. Giving him a job is another. Last year’s effort to arrange a workout, clumsy as it may have been on both sides, was a potential effort to thaw the ice. And the glacier ended up being larger and colder than ever.
Barring an incredibly dramatic and unexpected development, Kaepernick’s designation at NFL.com doesn’t matter. No one is going to offer him a job after three years out of the sport, and the window has long closed on the kind of collective outcry that would change it.