Benoit is clearly an idiot, but what’s dismaying here is that his idiocy is in lockstep with the rest of the NFL. Coverage like this exists to reinforce the dopey values that the NFL already holds dear. The insiders who talk to access merchants have lots of reason to go on about nuance in the pocket and unread reads and generally make throwing a ball seem like a task on par with flying a fighter jet, and the access merchants have lots of reason to take them seriously. The execs and coaches get to posture like they’re generals; the writers get to posture like they’ve seen into the hidden and ineffable complexities of the sport, which the average fan could
never see with their own eyes. All of these people have incentive to talk about how Kap just doesn’t get the subtleties of the game like they do.
You can see this dynamic in Benoit’s
followup post, where instead of doing anything to actually back his assertions about how a bunch of shytty QBs are better than Kap, he claims that 90 percent of the league agrees with his take that Kaepernick is not a proper pocket passer, a bit of racially-coded language that had its varnish stripped away years and years ago. (The man Kap hoped to back up, Russell Wilson, is not a traditional pocket passer and still does quite nicely for himself.) Benoit also says that his opinion of Kap has nothing to do with the anthem protest, and then IMMEDIATELY says this:
To sign Kaepernick, a team must be willing to take on the distraction that follows lightning rods.
And the team must be willing to alter its entire offense (for worse). It’s not worth it.
NFL teams may scheme relentlessly against one another and claim to have their own best practices, but deep down, they are all a sadly uncreative lot, and easily influenced by what other teams are doing. Just last month, Giants owner and spineless tit John Mara said his team got more angry calls about potentially signing Kaepernick than they did about any other issue, which is weird because a) this the team that re-signed Josh Brown after a horrifying DV incident, and b) why on Earth should any team give a fukk what fans think when making vital personnel moves? I can guarantee, though, that the Giants are hardly alone in turtling away from Kap, whose greatest sin was openly decrying institutional racism in America, out of fear. (By the way, the Giants opted to sign Geno Smith, who has more INTs in 33 games than Kap has in 69. In today’s NFL, apparently you’re better off just throwing the ball to the other team as long as you stay in the cherished pocket.)
I’m not here to make the statistical argument for Kaepernick, and I’m not here to make the moral argument for him either. I’m just here to say that I give up, and that any valid argument made on his behalf is a waste of time when presented to a league that has already decided to wash its hands of him. You may as well be arguing with a fukking wall.
It doesn’t matter why the NFL doesn’t want Kaepernick (He’s too frail! He wants too much money! His girlfriend is a militant! DURRRR SOMETHING ABOUT TEAM CHEMISTRY DURRRRR!). All that matters is that it’s been decided. All that matters is that any excuse to cast out Kaepernick will be deemed valid by people like Breer and Benoit.
