In Super Bowl 2020, I am cheering for Kansas City. Here are the reasons why.
I have been a Pittsburgh Steeler fan since their first Super Bowl run in 1975. I was ten years old and picked them to defeat the Minnesota Vikings. In 2009 the Steelers were the first team to win six Super Bowls. As of the writing of this piece, the Steelers and the team I love to root against, the New England Patriots are the only teams with six championships. Two teams trail close behind with five, the Steelers’ arch-enemy in the ’70s, the Dallas Cowboys, and, yes, the San Francisco 49ers. So, although I respect the 49ers and enjoyed watching great 49er Hall of Fame players like Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Steve Young, Ronnie Lott, and track phenom Renaldo Nehemiah – I ran track, for the sake of my favorite team, I can’t root for San Fran.
A bit of trivia, Joe Montana quarterbacked for the 49ers and the Chiefs.
Then there is Andy Reid, who I highly respect. I want to see his spectacular career as a coach payoff with at least one Super Bowl ring. How spectacular is his career? Well according to Wikipedia, “Reid ranks sixth in all-time NFL head coaching wins at 221, which are the most of any NFL head coach without a championship.” Nuff said.
Then there is third-year NFL player and KC’s quarterback Patrick Mahomes. This guy is fantastic. It is clear to everyone he is special. Like Joe Cool Montana, Mahomes is calm under pressure, can make amazing things happen, and is fun to watch. He entered the league in 2017 with KC, starting and playing in one game. In 2018 as KC’s starting quarterback, he posted a legendary year. Again, from Wikipedia, “That season, Mahomes threw for 5,097 yards, 50 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. He became the only quarterback in history to throw for over 5,000 yards in a season in both college and the NFL. He also joined Tom Brady and Peyton Manning as the only players in NFL history to throw at least 50 touchdown passes in a single season.”
I remember the first time I watched Peyton Manning play in the NFL. I could see that he was destined for greatness. If Mahomes can stay healthy, we are watching an all-time player make his Super Bowl debut. On top of that, he is a class act. You couldn’t ask for a better role model and team leader. It is hard for me to root against a guy like this unless, of course, my Steelers were playing. But alas, they are sitting at home, or I’m sure some are in luxury boxes watching the game. But none will be on the field.
Then there is the fact that I lived in Missouri for many years. Although I recently moved to Seattle, I still have some loyalty to the state. I lived in Saint Louis, not KC. All you football fans know the Rams left STL and went to Los Angeles. I will not root for the LA Rams. They abandoned Saint Louis, so for me, they are a no go. But I can show KC some love.
But then there is the most important reason I must root against the 49ers, Colin Kaepernick. I forgot that Kaepernick played with the 49ers when he began kneeling during the National Anthem to protest police brutality and racism in the U.S. A friend of mine who lives in San Francisco reminded me of that while visiting Seattle to attend a fundraiser for Trust Women a not-for-profit dedicated to access to reproductive rights.
I admire Colin Kaepernick’s bravery and resolves. As an act of solidarity, I sharply curtailed watching NFL football. I am disappointed in how the league – including my Steelers, handled the controversy.
I never investigated Kaepernick’s skills. It has been a long time since I have closely followed the league. For example, I don’t know who is on Pittsburgh’s roster. I’m too busy resisting war, working for peace, writing social commentaries like this one and being one of the activists who pushed into the public eye the issue of police brutality and misconduct that Kaepernick stuck his neck out and furthered the national discourse. However, it was clear to me- coordinated between the NFL teams or not, that they blocked him from playing. Even a casual observer can see that his career has been better than average, and many back-ups and starting quarterbacks were and are not better than him. But for this piece, I looked a bit closer, and all I can say is, are you kidding me?
Here is an overview of Colin’s career and links for you to look for yourself. A brief look at his college career shows that his potential is excellent. Once again from Wikipedia, “Kaepernick played college football for the University of Nevada where he was named the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Offensive Player of the Year twice and became the only player in NCAA Division I FBS history to amass 10,000 passing yards and 4,000 rushing yards in a career.”
For you that don’t know, NCAA Division I FSB is the top level of college football in the U.S. with the big powerhouse schools we all love and hate. So Colin was no joke in college. But a great college career does not automatically mean you can make it in the pros. Not to be mean, but the first person that comes to mind for me is Brian Bosworth. He’s number five on this list from Bleacher Report of The 50 Best College Players Who Flopped in the NFL. Most of the people on this list were a top-five pick in the NFL draft, and two went as low as number thirty. Kaepernick was the 36th pick.
More trivia, Kaepernick started his career as the back-up quarterback to Alex Smith. Smith is number fifty on the Bleacher Report’s list of NFL flops.
So how did Colin do in the pros? In 2011, his first year, he was the back-up to Alex Smith, the overall 2005 first-round draft pick out of Utah. Kaepernick attempted five passes during the season. In 2012 Colin got his chance to show his stuff after Smith suffered a concussion in week 10. Colin led the 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII (47), where they lost to the Baltimore Ravens. The next year he started every game and led the team to the NFC Championship game where they lost to the Seattle Seahawks who went on to win the Super Bowl.
In 2014 the 49ers went 8-8. Colin was inconsistent. However, Bleacher Report rated him 23rd of fifty quarterbacks in the league.
The 2015 season did not go well for the 49ers, and Colin struggled under the new coach Jim Tomsula. In week eight, he lost the starting job to Blaine Gabbert and missed the rest of the season due to injury. The 49ers ended the season 5-11.
Kaepernick returned to play in 2016 and started in week 6. However, the team’s season was worse than 2015, ending 2-14. During the offseason, Kyle Shanahan became the new coach, making him the 4th under which Colin played. Shanahan did not think Kaepernick fit the offense he wanted to run and planned to release him. Colin opted out of his contract instead and became a free agent in 2017. As we all know, no one hired him.
According to Wikipedia, in 2016, “Kaepernick played twelve games and ended the season with 2,241 passing yards, sixteen passing touchdowns, four interceptions and added 468 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns.”
How does that stack up against other quarterbacks? Well, if we go by this Washington Post May 2017 story, it wasn’t the best, but it was good enough to have a quarterback rating better than several other starters such as Cam Newton, Carson Wentz, and Eli Manning to name three. Further, according to the same story, Colin’s 2016 rating of 55.2 was better than half of the back-ups in the league that year. And to add insult to injury, his career interception rate is 1.8%, second-best in NFL history to Aaron Rodgers.
More trivia, Kaepernick maintained a 4.0-grade point average during his college years and graduated in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in business management. He’s more than no dummy. He’s smarter than most.
Finally, here are links to two articles. This June 7, 2017 Sport Illustrated piece titled The 15 Back-up Quarterbacks Better Than Colin Kaepernick is critical of him. But if there are 15 better performers, that means there are 17 worse because there are 32 teams. As disapproving as the author is of Kaepernick – and he is very critical, he also writes, “Kaepernick is talented enough to be an NFL back-up. In fact, I think he’s better than almost half of the back-up QB in the league, but that’s it.”
On the other hand, here is a more approving Washington Post piece that tracks the 2017 performance of each NFL team’s starting quarterback stats and compares them to Kaepernick’s 2016 season. From the article, “Over the course of the season, 10 quarterbacks were worse than Kaepernick, 7 were about the same, and 15 were better.”
So the outcome of my investigation is clear. If we go by performance, a team should have hired Colin in 2017. The league wronged him, no doubt about it. But it wasn’t about his performance, was it? Sadly no.
I expect the game to be good. The 49ers are a great team. But I think KC is just as good and want it more because they came so close last year. Usually, I wouldn’t care that much since the Steelers didn’t make it. But I have real reasons to care. Win or lose Kaepernick is not playing anywhere, and we continue to resist police brutality and violence. And while sports have a history of leading society in a positive direction on social issues, it has also been a mirror reflecting just how ugly and unfair the world can be. The league’s decision to shun Colin is an example of that ugliness. Yet Colin is an example of courage, conviction, and the resilience Black people have shown through our nation’s history as we push America to really be the home of the free.
When Demi Lovato sings the National Anthem Sunday before the game – I’ll be kneeling, we should all salute Colin Kaepernick as one of the brave.
