Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins supported Colin Kaepernick Thursday, calling NFL owners "cowards" for not signing the former Super Bowl quarterback who sparked controversy when he took a knee during the national anthem at games to protest alleged police brutality against African-Americans.
Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti recently admitted he was seeking "outside opinions" on signing Kaepernick even though his coach John Harbaugh and general manager Ozzie Newsome were supposedly on record as wanting to sign him, noted the Wilmington News Journal and the Bleacher Report.
"This is just some other teams being, quite honestly, cowards, to say that they're afraid of backlash to sign someone to make their team better when fans' input has never been in the equation when it comes to signing people in the past," Jenkins told the News Journal
"It's certain owners' way of making an example out of (Kaepernick) to discourage anybody else from doing what he did," Jenkins said.
ESPN wrote that while Kaepernick was supported by some players around the league for his actions, he was roundly criticized as well.
President Donald Trump took credit in March for Kaepernick not being hired by an NFL team for fear of blowback from the commander-in-chief, CNN noted.
"It was reported that NFL owners don't want to pick him up because they don't want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump," Trump said then. "Do you believe that? I just saw that. I just saw that."
The Ravens, though, are without starting quarterback Joe Flacco for the preseason because of injury and are down one signal-caller, Ryan Mallet, with any kind of NFL experience, the News Journal stated.
"I think it's safe to throw out that talent argument, and basically focus on the fact that he doesn't have a job solely because he didn't stand for the anthem last year, even though he already expressed that he planned on standing this year," Jenkins told the News Journal.
"That message, to me, is loud and clear from owners as to where their priorities stand and how they go about picking and choosing who they want on their teams. It's definitely unfortunate, but it's shining a light on just how the NFL operates and what we deem as acceptable. It really has nothing to do with what's right or wrong, but what affects dollars. That's business as usual, but I think it's an unfortunate precedent to set," Jenkins continued.
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