False patriotism of NFL scoundrels could keep Kaepernick unemployed

There is enough evil in the hierarchy of the National Football League and among the league's 32 owners for the blackballing of quarterback Colin Kaepernick to be an unofficial policy.

There's also the possibility that Kaepernick's inability to find a landing spot is based on business decisions made independently, with all 32 clubs fearing the loss of a local sponsor or two should they sign the young man who chose to kneel during the National Anthem before games during the 2016 season.

Option No. 3 is that every personnel boss in the league has deemed that Kaepernick's skill set – remarkable runner, unreliable passer – is not workable with the read option having come and gone so quickly as a prime NFL offensive weapon.

It is unfortunate on varying degrees in all three options, because Kaepernick was sincere in making his mild protest to what he saw as troubling times for the poor and displaced.

He has backed up the Anthem kneel-down with hundreds of thousands of his dollars and much energy to support causes, including the shipping of tons of food in an attempt to save the starving in Somalia.

So what if he knelt in the background as the Anthem was played?

A player who doesn't stand in some football stadium in America and he is tarnishing those who have fought for our country for 250 years, and those who are serving now?

It's a song, not an action.

Kaepernick has acted nobly in recent months, while millions of the rest of us have done nothing other than to pat ourselves on the back for being offended that this committed athlete knelt during a weekly ritual.

Samuel Johnson, the distinguished Englishman of the 1700s, was credited with the famous quote: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.''

His friend and biographer, James Boswell, said that Johnson was referring to "false patriotism,'' and there's plenty of that going around in the case of Kaepernick's critics – plenty of it to be found in the NFL offices and with 32 NFL teams, for that matter.

Heck, numerous teams have accepted nice chunks of money to put on artificial displays of patriotism in their stadiums, including our anything-for-a-big-buck Vikings.

It might be a fine idea for Kaepernick's agent to call teams in the Canadian Football League and find him a place to start for a couple of years. The politics aren't as restrictive up there (even though O Canada is a catchier anthem), nor are the guidelines for playing quarterback.

Dear Colin:

Check this out with Doug Flutie. He was another unconventional quarterback who went to Canada, resurrected his career and got some run when he returned to the NFL. And you're taller, faster and with a stronger arm.