^Bascally want to agree with everything jambr380 said.
Also, I'm hardly a Bible-thumper, but a Christian friend pointed out to me that Tim Tebow was shunned from the league similar to Kaepernick and controversial for his TD celebrations making it "all about him" like Cam. Not saying some dislike for these athletes can't be racially-motivated, but everything happening to them literally happened to a white athlete almost a decade ago. How short our memories are.
This is an absurd take. Tim Tebow was simply not a good quarterback. End of story. He was ridiculously popular in Denver despite this. I’m a Broncos fan and was excited when he was drafted, but he simply wasn’t an NFL QB — I can’t tell you the number of wide open receivers who had balls thrown either 5 yards over their heads or 5 yards on the turf in front of them. He was dead last in completion percentage at a terrible 46.5%, 4.3 points lower than next-worse Blaine Gabbert, and 13 points worse than Colin Kaepernick’s final season (and career average). It’s why two years after he was drafted in the first round he was traded for a fourth round pick. He couldn’t crack the Jets lineup, but two more teams took chances on him in the following summers, and he couldn’t make those rosters either. (How many chances has Kaepernick been given? Zero.)
And, having washed out of football, he a) was given a lot of money to talk about football and b) was given a baseball contract and an immediate spring training invite despite not having played baseball for a decade. If he hadn’t gotten hurt last year, he would have been called up to the majors, despite hitting .163 in Triple-A, just because he’s Tim Tebow. He will be in the player pool of Mets eligible to be called to the majors this season, again, despite hitting .163 last year, with an OPS of below .500, in Triple-A. Both of these marks were dead last in the league for anyone with as many plate appearances as Tebow had. He’s 33 this summer, but he keeps getting chances.
You know who else played baseball in high school? Colin Kaepernick, who, unlike Tebow, was actually drafted. You know who hasn’t gotten a pro baseball contract? Colin Kaepernick.
Tim Tebow simply wasn’t good enough. But he keeps getting chances, because he’s Tim Tebow, the exact opposite of Colin Kaepernick, who gets no chances because he’s Colin Kaepernick, and unlike Cam Newton who got a second chance because he’s a former MVP, which Tebow never had a prayer of achieving.
Don't want to die on this hill because you make valid points, but I feel compelled to respond because my post was not as absurd as it may read juxtaposed with your comment.
Kaepernick was suing the NFL for two years, refused to take a pay cut to be the Bronco's starter, and was going to be signed by the Ravens before his girlfriend insulted Ray Lewis, who was the one advocating that Ravens ownership sign Kaep. Additionally, the CFL team that has Kaep's rights wanted to sign him, but he reportedly never returned their calls.
Further, it is my recollection that Kaepernick, unlike Tebow, was not willing to be a backup. (The earliest reporting I can find of him being willing to be a backup is September 2019, after he sued the league, and it was reported as breaking news via Stephen A. Smith)
You make a good point about Tebow's baseball career- the fact that he's a profitable sideshow for a joke of an organization does speak to the fact that he is not universally hated or blackballed from sports. But 1) Tebow had similar "too much of a sideshow to be worth it as a backup" concerns expressed in the media, especially when he was in training camp with New England 2) Tebow was someone who everyone thought would be a great HB/WR, so getting him into camp provided that possibility 3) Tebow wasn't suing the league that he was in 4) Tebow was willing to be a backup 5) I can find no reporting that Kaep has ever expressed interest in pursuing an MLB career since he left the NFL.
So, to summarize, Kaep had a contract and a presumable job until 2020, refused to accept a paycut (from $12 million a year to $7 million a year, which would have made him the 23rd highest paid QB, just behind Jay Cutler and two behind Tom Brady) to go to a team where he would have been a starter (the Broncos pre-Lynch draft) after a 1-10-0, 16TD year, opted out of his contract, did not entertain being a backup or signing with non-NFL leagues (is the CFL the equivalent of minor league baseball?) and decided to sue the league after his girlfriend accused the owner of the team about to extend him an offer of being racist. I can honestly see why said league had no opportunities for him.
So, in the context of this thread (saying "Boston media has had concerns about training camp invites attracting too much, potentially-distracting, media attention for Bill Belichick or the team's liking" is not race-related), I really don't think the Tebow comparison is absurd at all. "Shunned from the league" was poor word choice without much thought, and TD celebrations were also a bit irrelevant to this whole conversation, so I apologize for that. I just wanted to clarify that I found the comparison valid because there was a myriad of similar comments made about Tebow in 2013 (compared to what Felger and Mazz said about Cam the other day).