Sources: NFL won’t give Kap reps list of attendees
Desmond Howard and Ryan Clark both find the NFL’s private workout for Colin Kaepernick disingenuous. (1:24)
The NFL will not provide a list of personnel executives and coaches who will attend Colin Kaepernick‘s workout Saturday to the quarterback’s representatives, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Sources earlier Wednesday told ESPN that the NFL had agreed to give the Kaepernick camp a list of attendees. However, an NFL source later told ESPN that the league never promised to provide that list.
Although multiple teams have confirmed that they will attend the workout, none has identified by name who will be going.
Several high-level NFL executives reached out as a courtesy to Kaepernick’s representatives to say they couldn’t attend and were caught off-guard and confused by the purpose of the NFL scheduling the workout.
The NFL informed its clubs Tuesday that a private workout would be held for Kaepernick on Saturday in Atlanta. It is set to include both on-field work and an interview with the quarterback, who has been out of football since 2016, the year he began protesting police brutality and racial injustice by kneeling during the pregame national anthem.
Sources previously told ESPN that Kaepernick and his reps were alerted to the workout at 10 a.m. Tuesday, ahead of a 4 p.m. ET personnel notice the league sent to teams. When notified, the quarterback’s reps asked for the workout to be on a Tuesday, which typically is when NFL workouts take place because head coaches and general managers can attend more easily. On Saturday, almost half of the NFL teams will be traveling to games, and most of the rest of the coaches and players will be heading to their team hotels to prepare for games the next day.
But the NFL said the workout had to be on a Saturday, sources previously told ESPN. When the league was asked whether it could be the following Saturday — by making it this Saturday, the 32 teams had only about three days to decide whether to attend and whom to send — the NFL said no and didn’t provide a reason.
Sources previously told ESPN that the league office also said none of the 32 teams had been made aware of the workout before the memo was sent. When Kaepernick’s representatives asked whether a team or teams had asked for the workout, the NFL league office said, “We can’t tell you that,” the reps explained.
Because of the mystery around the workout and because none of the teams had been informed before Tuesday, Kaepernick’s representatives began to question the legitimacy of the workout and the process and wonder whether it was a public-relations stunt by the league, sources previously told ESPN. The representatives asked the league office for a list of personnel executives and coaches who would be attending the workout because GMs and head coaches make personnel decisions, particularly given how important the quarterback position is.
As things stand now, the NFL has decided not to provide that list.
The Kaepernick workout remained a hot topic Wednesday across the league.
Coaches for the Miami Dolphins, Detroit Lions, Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers said they expected to have a representative at the Falcons’ practice facility on Saturday. In addition, John Elway told 9News that the Denver Broncos will be represented, and a Washington Redskins spokesman said that organization would be there. The Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals also plan to be at the workout, sources told ESPN.
Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid, who was the first player to join Kaepernick in taking a knee during the pregame national anthem to protest social injustice while both were with the San Francisco 49ers, said Wednesday that “it feels disingenuous” that the NFL would schedule a workout for the QB on Saturday.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Reid said Wednesday. “At this point, it feels like a PR stunt.”
Information from ESPN’s Ed Werder and Josh Weinfuss was used in this report.