NFL will review Colin Kaepernick’s penalty for inappropriate language
By Hayden Kane
In a rather confusing and unexpected moment during Sunday night’s game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Chicago Bears, Colin Kaepernick was flagged 15 yards for using inappropriate language.
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The penalty came as a surprise given the fact that any reasonable person would concede that bad, ugly, fowl, and horrible language is used every week on NFL fields nationwide. One can only imagine the filth that NFL referees hear each week; even with the authority to call unsportsmanlike conduct on players for bad language, what would it actually take to force the call?
With that question in mind, speculation started to surface that Kaepernick used a racial epithet to earn the penalty. On Tuesday the NFL said that they will look into the matter, according to Ed Werder of ESPN. When asked about the situation, 49ers’ head coach Jim Harbaugh said he would welcome an explanation:
"Harbaugh reiterated in his Monday media conference that he did not receive an explanation about the penalty, which fueled speculation that a racial epithet was heard, and said he still wants clarification from the league on the call.“Yeah, we’d like that,” Harbaugh said. “Find out about that.”"
Kaepernick insists that he “didn’t say anything.” It should be interesting to hear how the NFL plans to look into it. Do they have some sort of audio? Do they employ lip readers? It seems like this situation will always be left to “he said, he said” accounts, with most of us never finding out what was actually said.
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