Source: Cowboys 'Will Be In Attendance' at Colin Kaepernick Workout
FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys have gone from “evaluating” the opportunity of attending Saturday’s NFL-orchestrated private workout for Colin Kaepernick, as we reported early this morning, to a decision: "We will be in attendance," a team source tells me.
And then, on Saturday in Atlanta, will come the "evaluation.'' And what is there to evaluate? Football should be the priority, obviously, but after the former star quarterback has been out of the league for three years, it’s impossible to tell this story without also mentioning “politics” and “optics.”
Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since opting out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers in 2017 after having led that team to Super Bowl XLVII. He became a controversial lightning rod after opting to kneel during the national anthem in protest of social injustice. That made him a hero to some, a “problem” to others and ultimately, a non-entity to 32 teams.
But now, at age 32 and collusion lawsuits settled ... is Kaepernick suddenly viable in an NFL that is starting players like Jeff Driskel is Detroit (where the Cowboys play this week)? Is he suddenly recognized as superior to Mike White, who spent a wasted year on the Cowboys roster and is now clinging to an NFL career as a Jets practice-squadder?
Or is this workout — staged by the NFL on an inconvenient late-season Saturday — a ruse, a way for the league to avoid more collusion claims?
“I’m just getting word from my representatives that the NFL league office reached out to them about a workout in Atlanta on Saturday,” Kaepernick tweeted on Tuesday evening. “I’ve been in shape and ready for this for 3 years, can’t wait to see the head coaches and GMs on Saturday. “
One report quotes a source, apparently from the Kaepernick camp, and reads, “The expectation ... is that there will be reps from every team present.”
And now we have one of those teams, with a "yes'' - Dallas.
There are football reasons for the Cowboys to make this decision to be there. There are “optics” reasons, too; a team not attending a workout of a prospect would stink of collusion all over again. And the issue of “politics”? Cowboys owner Jerry Jones it at peace with recent acquisitions Robert Quinn and Michael Bennett, two lieutenants in the movement captained by Kaepernick.
The Cowboys' personnel department flight to Atlanta is now booked, the commitment to be there firm. How serious is the trip? The seriousness starts with the trip itself.
