Controversial former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick may get his wish to return to the league, but not as a player.
We could be soon calling the ex-player “coach Kaepernick.” The man who coached Kaepernick and led the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl, Jim Harbaugh, is now the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. At the beginning of 2024, Harbaugh reportedly offered Kaepernick a job as a coach on his staff, according to an exclusive interview Harbaugh gave USA Today.
Kaepernick, who was the most polarizing figure in all of American sports in 2016, was ostracized and then unofficially exiled from the NFL when he knelt on his knee during the national anthem. Kaepernick has been working to get back in the league since the owners illegally colluded to shut him out in 2017. He successfully sued the league and they settled out of court for millions of dollars.
Kaepernick wants to return to the game as a player
However, Kaepernick wants to return as a quarterback, something that seems highly unlikely because he’s been out of the league for seven years. Harbaugh said he offered Kaepernick a circuitous path to bring his dream to fruition.
“If that was ever the path he was to take, I think that would be tremendous,” Harbaugh said. “He’d be a tremendous coach, if that’s the path he chose.”
Kaepernick is currently weighing his options
Harbaugh added in the interview that he has not had much contact with Kaepernick recently, as the former quarterback was in France for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“He’s considering it,” Harbaugh added. “He was out of the country. He said he was going to get back to me. We haven’t reconnected since then. That was early, early in the year.”
While most sports pundits believe resolutely that Kaepernick will never play again, he nevertheless holds out hope of returning to the gridiron, even at the advanced sports age of 36.
“We’re still training, still pushing,” Kaepernick told Sky Sports News earlier in August 2024. “So, hopefully. We’ve just got to get one of these team owners to open up.”
“It’s something I’ve trained my whole life for, so to be able to step back on the field, I think that would be a major moment, a major accomplishment for me. I think I could bring a lot to a team and help them win a championship.”
