Michael Vick speaks out on Colin Kaepernick
Michael Vick knows a little about rehabbing your image to the NFL, and he had some advice for Colin Kaepernick.
The ongoing NFL unemployment of Colin Kaepernick is becoming less of a mystery as time goes on, if there is any real mystery after his kneeling for the national anthem last year. He has also yet to speak publicly and convey desire to even play football, with social causes becoming a priority.
Michael Vick knows something about redeeming an image, having served time in federal prison on dog fighting charges before returning to the NFL for a few years. He had some guidance from a notable advocate in Tony Dungy, but Vick is a relative success story who owned his mistake.
Kaepernick’s kneeling for the national anthem is not a mistake on any important level, outside of how it looks to NFL teams that may want to sign him. Vick was on FS1’s Speak For Yourself Monday, with some advice for Kaepernick about his appearance.
"First thing we got to get Colin to do is cut his hair." — @MikeVick advises Kaepernick on rebuilding his image pic.twitter.com/YENvUPOIgP
— Speak (@SpeakOnFS1) July 17, 2017
Vick did add that he thinks Kaepernick’s unemployment has more to do with his play on the field over the last two seasons than his social stance leading to being blackballed by the league. But the headline is the idea Kaepernick should cut his hair to project a clean-cut image, rather than keep his afro. Critical responses from NFL players have come, and Kaepernick himself seemed to respond to Vick’s comment on Tuesday morning.
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) July 18, 2017
Of course Vick had to walk back his comment, which was not necessarily malicious or critical as much as simple advice when it comes to dealing with NFL owners, on social media. Right or wrong, a bold hairstyle does not look good to that old-school group and one of them has to sign off on a decision to sign Kaepernick that goes beyond football.
— Michael Vick (@MichaelVick) July 18, 2017
Next: 2017 NFL Season: Win/loss projection for all 32 teams
Kaepernick, if he even wants to, will have to wait for an injury in camp or the preseason to latch on with an NFL team. Without any words from him about wanting to play, Vick was right to suggest something else has to change for teams to change their thinking.