These two athletes symbolize the dichotomy of American life so deeply it is uncanny. The differences in reception and treatment between Colin Kaepernick and Tim Tebow show what is celebrated and what is shunned. Let me say now, as a former defensive lineman, I hate all quarterbacks equally. However, the hypocrisy of the way these men are treated must be noted.
Free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick is having a hard time finding a home with an NFL team. Many people have dropped all types of theories as to why he’s facing this struggle.
The most extreme trains of thought say that he is completely useless and can’t add value to a team on the field. Others say he is being blackballed solely for his protests as well as his political views. From what I’ve seen, many people in sports media go entirely with one theme or the other, but I argue that this like many other things is in a happy medium.
Kaepernick is a quarterback who started in a Super Bowl less than four years ago. His former head coach, Jim Harbaugh, has vouched for his work ethic and dedication multiple times. His career touchdown to turnover ratio is pedestrian at 85 touchdowns against 45 turnovers. However, in the 2016-17 season he tallied a decent statistical 16 touchdowns to seven turnovers. He was in the bottom third of the league in total QBR so it’d be a fair assessment to say his play is slipping a little.
He also made breaking news during the preseason by not standing for the national anthem. This protest inspired a wave of similar acts from teammates, players on all levels and in different sports. Nonetheless, many others hated this protest.
An anonymous general manager explained why no one was touching Kaepernick to Bleacher Report and dropped a few gems. “The rest of [general managers] genuinely hate him and can’t stand what he did [kneeling for the national anthem]. They want nothing to do with him. They won’t move on. They think showing no interest is a form of punishment.” An AFC general manager said to Bleacher Report, “I think some teams also want to use Kaepernick as a cautionary tale to stop other players in the future from doing what he did.”
On the other hand, Tim Tebow is the exact opposite. All of his views, ideals and many aspects of his personality are what would probably be described as that of the All-American man.
He’s a hardworking, ever optimistic, charming athlete that often quotes Bible scriptures and is led by God and his word. I have no gripes with his personality or even anything that Tebow himself has done. It’s the way people treat him that bothers me.
Tebow has proven himself to be an ineffective quarterback at best. In two years as a part-time player and starter, he never had a season with a completion percentage over 50 percent. Yet somehow, he got a shot with four different teams in the NFL. He then said he wanted to play baseball after not playing competitively since high school and got a shot. Again, this is not to bash Tebow; this is to say GMs are shunning one player not because of his lack of character or shaky past, but because of him speaking on injustice.
If sports are supposed to be representative of the meritocratic nature of America, then sorry to say, NFL, but your hypocrisy is showing. Both of these men are hardworking, charitable and upstanding citizens. One of them can actually perform at the professional level and one can’t. Yet the better athlete is unemployed. When the president of the United States comes out and says NFL teams won’t sign him because they know they’ll face his Twitter wrath, it becomes all too clear that on-field performance isn’t the only thing at play here.
