Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is still trying to make his way back into the league…even though he hasn’t officially thrown a football in a jersey and pads since 2017.
At this point, it’s an annual tradition. Though Kaepernick’s football playing days are over (especially after he compared the NFL to slavery), he continues to train for a very improbable comeback. He’s now pushing a decade since he played competitively in the NFL after many believed he was blackballed from the league because of his kneeling protests.
The closest he got to a comeback – and saying that is still a stretch – is back when Aaron Rodgers went down with an injury in his first season with the New York Jets. Kaepernick wrote a letter to the Jets, saying bringing him in for a workout would be a “nothing to lose” scenario, and then pointed towards some high-level references that would be willing to back him up and talk to the Jets if they had any questions.
That list included Jim Harbaugh (Former Michigan Head Coach & Current Los Angeles Chargers), Chip Kelly (Former UCLA Head Coach & Current Raiders OC), John Harbaugh (Baltimore Ravens Head Coach), and Mark Davis (Las Vegas Raiders Owner). If you were wondering, that open letter never resulted in anything. His last NFL workout actually came with the Raiders in May of 2022. Kaepernick’s other big chance to return to the NFL came last year, when the Chargers offered the 37-year-old Kaepernick a spot on… the coaching staff.
Colin Kaepernick turned that down.
Evidently, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback still believes he has some gas left in the tank. And reports are suggesting that he’s still training to play professional football, even though the NFL has shown little to no interest in making that happen. Nessa Diab, Kaepernick’s girlfriend, recently told TMZ that Colin is working out “all day, every day,” and that “nothing has changed” with his approach to a comeback and that “it’s all up to the teams if they’ll let him” play.
My question is… why doesn’t Kaepernick try proving himself in one of the other pro football leagues?
If we was able to prove that he’s still an asset in the Canadian Football League, or the UFL (formerly known as the XFL), then the NFL might be more open to giving him a shot. But it seems as though he thinks he’s above those leagues, and only eyes a return to the league that’s strongly spoken against.
Funny how trash talking your former employer leads to your former employer not offering you a job…
Currently, and as you might imagine, the internet is laughing at Colin Kaepernick for continuing to train for an NFL comeback when the National Football League has clearly moved past the former 49ers QB. Some are even comparing him to Napoleon Dynamite’s Uncle Rico:
He is getting a day pass from the seniors citizens center to go try out. pic.twitter.com/b84cthGXO1
— Burt Macklin (@BurtMaclin_FBI) April 20, 2025
I am still training to be in the NBA. I go to LA Fitness 4 times a week, and play rec ball.
— Ry (@IHODLBTC) April 20, 2025
That ship done sailed a long time ago.
— Eric (@ThreeperUSA) April 20, 2025
Annual Kaepernick is still training update.
— jack (@jaxmacmullen) April 21, 2025
— GR82BTN (@GR82BTN) April 20, 2025
https://t.co/BlVsPkJGQG pic.twitter.com/7HDA6qRG0l
— Not Wes (@NotWesKushner) April 20, 2025
