Colin Kaepernick’s final NFL season didn’t go as planned.
The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback last played in the league in 2016. Kaepernick didn’t mean for that to be his final season, of course. But, he began kneeling for the national anthem that year, and following the season, the 49ers didn’t extend his contract. He failed to get an offer from another team, too. It’s been 10 years since he last played professional football.
Kaepernick, who previously led the 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance, played in 12 games in 2016. However, in his new book, Kaepernick accuses the 49ers of essentially tanking in his final season in the league. He wasn’t happy with how the team handled things.
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In Kaepernick’s memoir, “The Perilous Fight,” the quarterback discusses how the 49ers handled his final season.
“I should add that the Niners didn’t seem interested in winning football games. They appeared to be in full “tank” mode. They were calling Chip Kelly’s first season a “rebuilding” year, but in actuality they had no plan to go get the talent Coach Kelly wanted,” he wrote.
“The team didn’t get us another receiver,” Kaepernick added. “Despite having the money to do so, something like $40 million in salary cap space.”
The 49ers might not have been trying their hardest to win
Niners Nation believes that Kaepernick could be correct.
“Was the team tanking? It wouldn’t be surprising. The 49ers’ lack of spending in free agency both in 2015 and 2016 didn’t make sense then, and it doesn’t make sense now (though there were rumors that players didn’t want to go to the 49ers with all the issues). The same could have been said for the Chip Kelly hire. We’ve already mentioned the offense, but Kelly’s defense under Jim O’Neil was one of the worst in league (not team) history. While the hire was a head-scratcher to begin with, the 49ers didn’t help Kelly get into a position to succeed. Kelly might have been a bad coach no matter what happened, but he was put in a failing situation regardless,” they wrote.
“There’s a strange alternate reality of what would have happened if Kelly had stayed with the 49ers for another couple of years and the team only let go of Baalke at the end of the 2016 season. It’s doubtful Kelly’s system would have succeeded no matter what the 49ers would have done, but it’s definitely a weird twilight zone moment.”
Kaepernick remains interested in a comeback, though one appears highly unlikely at this point.
