Ravens Taking On Colin Kaeprnick?

It was around this time last year that Quarterback Colin Kaeprnick started to make his statement. He was making protest in regards to some of the social issues that were going on around this country at that time. He decide to take a knee every week during the National Anthem. He took a ton of heat for it by fans, players and management in the league a like. Once last season ended, he was let go by the 49ers. During the winter months, no team in the NFL wanted to take a flyer on him or even touch him with a ten foot pole. As training camp around the league has started to open up, no team had taken a flyer on him. Until now.

The Baltimore Ravens are no stranger to controversial decisions. Just three years ago, Ray Rice had that whole domestic violence issue and the Ravens still supported him. Because of that situation, the Ravens became the face of the league’s problem with how it handled domestic violence issues. They are back at it again now with Colin Kaepernick’s NFL future. It was announced on Wednesday that Baltimore coach John Harbaugh and general manager Ozzie Newsome are both in favor of signing Kaepernick to provide insurance as starting quarterback Joe Flacco deals with a back injury, but owner Steve Bisciotti has resisted the idea. Kaepernick's name came up last week after Harbaugh said starting quarterback Joe Flacco would miss a week with a back injury. Backup Ryan Mallett has struggled while filling in with the first-team offense, throwing at least five interceptions during one practice.

It should be no surprise that the Ravens are the one team taking on this challenge, they are no stranger to this type of situation. Its a bit of a sensitive matter, there's no doubt. But what I'm still trying to figure out is why people are still making a big stink over what Kaepernick did.

Perhaps I'm looking at this in too simple of a manner. All he did was take a peaceful protest against a problem in this country, its not like he did anything horrible. All he did was take a knee during the National Anthem as a means to draw attention to his cause, he didn't hurt anybody. Nowadays people are way too sensitive if you ask me, he really didn't do anything wrong. The fact that no teams are taking a flyer on him is a little surprising. I know, at times, Colin went a little overboard with his stance, but still he went about making his statement in a way that didn't really hurt anybody.

The reason why I think Ravens ownership is hedging this is the PR point of view, but I don't think it should make much of a difference. Ray Lewis brought up a great point and tip for the young quarterback, he should take a bit of a step back and lighten up a little bit on his activism. It might have been a good idea on Colin's part to make his stand and bring awareness to an activist party to make social change and then let others handle it and just focus on football.

Besides, if Kaeprnick gets signed by Baltimore, there's no way he's taking over the starting job. Joe Flacco is the man under center for the Ravens and nothing is going to really change that. Right now, Flacco is dealing with an injury and signing Kaeprnick would give them a solid, proven backup to take snaps. Lets not forget, Kaeprnick lead this team to a Super Bowl appearance and back to back NFC Championship games. So he has the skills to be good in this league, if playing in the right system.

Is that system going to be in Baltimore? Somewhere else? Only time will tell.