The NFL’s scheduled workout for Colin Kaepernick turned into a media circus. Initially, Kaepernick was scheduled to hold a private workout and interview session on Saturday, Nov. 16. 2019, with multiple NFL teams at the Atlanta Falcons facility in Flowery Branch, Georgia.
However, Kaepernick changed the location of the workout hours before it was set to begin. Instead of Flowery Branch, Kaepernick decided to work out at a high school nearly an hour away from the Falcons’ training facility.
ESPN’s Stephen. A. Smith blasted Kaepernick’s action on a video posted on social media.
“This man wanted a chance. Twenty-five teams show up in Georgia at the Atlanta Falcons practice facility. And what does Colin Kaepernick do?” Smith said. “Not Tuesday, when he found out about it. Not Wednesday, not Thursday, not Friday. Saturday, three hours before the workout because of some issue with a liability waiver, Colin Kaepernick wants to change the venue. Colin Kaepernick wants his own receivers. Colin Kaepernick wants to video things himself. Colin Kaepernick wants the media … He don’t want to play. He wants to be a martyr.”
Carolina Panthers player Eric Reid responded to Smith by saying that he was tap dancing for the league.
“Tap dancing for the NFL, like, damn straight Colin wants to control the narrative,” Reid wrote. “He supposed to trust the organization that blackballed him and has done absolutely nothing in good faith? Born on Tuesday, just not last Tuesday.”
The verbal sparring between Smith and Reid caused a stir on social media as many took sides and argued over the issue.
On Saturday, Kaepernick spoke to the media for the first time in three years after his workout.
“I’ve been ready for three years, I’ve been denied for three years,” Kaepernick told reporters. “We all know why I came out here: To show you today, in front of everybody, we have nothing to hide. So we’re waiting for the 32 owners, the 32 teams, Roger Goodell, all of them, to stop running. Stop running from the truth, stop running from the people.”
