Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said on Thursday that he regrets not signing Colin Kaepernick after the quarterback became a free agent in 2017
Friday 12 June 2020 13:57, UK
NFL great Terrell Owens on Thursday said the league should apologise to Colin Kaepernick for refusing to support his kneeling protests against racial inequality during the 2016 season.
Kaepernick, who at the time was the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, was the first to take a knee during the pre-game playing of the national anthem to call attention to racial injustice and police brutality.
The gesture gained momentum among players that year but also ignited a firestorm of controversy, especially after US President Donald Trump slammed the protests as unpatriotic. Kaepernick has been unsigned since that season.
"We're standing here on behalf of Colin," Owens told reporters while surrounded by a group of protesters during a march in Los Angeles on Thursday.
"Those players want an apology from the commissioner [Roger Goodell] on behalf of the NFL and himself, because he was part of taking that direct order from the president of the United States not to re-sign this guy," he said.
"That in itself is systemic racism... it was a direct order from the president of the United States to those white owners not to re-sign Colin Kaepernick, who is a black quarterback."
The NFL did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside of regular business hours.
Hall of Fame wide receiver Owens, who retired after the 2010 season, said he would also love to see Kaepernick back on the field.
"This guy was stripped and robbed of his livelihood at the direct order of the president of the United States," he said.
In addition to Trump calling Kaepernick's protest unpatriotic, in 2017 Vice President Mike Pence walked out of an NFL game when some of the players knelt on the sidelines.
In a video posted online last week, Goodell said the NFL was wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier but did not mention Kaepernick by name.
The issue has returned to the fore in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis who died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll admitted on Thursday that he regrets not signing Kaepernick when he became a free agent back in 2017.
The team had arranged a meeting with him in spring 2018 but eventually pulled out of any potential deal, with reports at the time suggesting this had been due to Kaepernick's refusal to agree he wouldn't kneel for the anthem.
Carroll, who revealed an unnamed NFL team called him on Thursday to inquire about Kaepernick, insisted kneeling "was never the issue" and that the main reason was the presence of Russell Wilson as the clear starter.
"He was a dominant figure as a football player, and that's how we saw him," Carroll said. "The fact that it didn't work out, I figured he was going to wind up starting somewhere for sure, and it just didn't happen.
"So, the rest of that story is one that I regret that didn't happen in some fashion. I wish we would have contributed to it, because again, he deserved to play.
"I thought at the time and just in our situation as a backup, man, I didn't feel it was right at that time, so I had to make that football decision. It was about our team and the situation.
"We had our starting quarterback and all of that, and it wasn't going to be the open competitive situation that I'd like to think all of our spots are because Russell is such a dominant figure and all that. That's what happened."
Trevone Boykin was Seattle's backup in 2016, but he was eventually released in March 2018 amid allegations that he broke his girlfriend's jaw in two places.
The Seahawks met with Kaepernick the next month, however a deal never materialised.
"When you look back, I felt like we missed the opportunity," Carroll added. "I wish we could have figured that out. Knowing what we know now, I wish we had given him the chance, because I would love to see him play for all those years."
Geno Smith is currently backup to Wilson in Seattle, who mark the 29-year-old's fourth team so far in his career.
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