Colin Kaepernick is a Better Quarterback, and a Better American, Than Most of the Starters in Week 1 of the NFL

Artist depiction of the quality of quarterback play in the NFL

I was going to start off this week like I did last week with an instant reaction to the first week of the NFL season. I had some takes, but there is one take that has to take up my entire blog today.

The quarterback play that I watched this Thursday, Sunday and, presumably, tonight, was absolutely atrocious. It was so dreadfully awful. I had to work in the morning on Sunday, but I was home in time for all the late afternoon games, and I saw the end of some of the early games. The QB play, at least on the Patriots side, Thursday night was pretty awful as well. Tom Brady played horrendous football on Thursday night. His bad play wasn't a call to arms for me though. He has been great since 2001, so he can have a bad game here and there. He is 40, and that is to be expected.

What I didn't expect was Alex Smith to outplay him by that much. This was the first time in Smith's career where he actually looked like the number one overall pick. He was throwing beautiful deep balls and hitting receivers in stride. You have to remember too, the Chiefs traded all the way up to number 10 in the most recent draft to take Patrick Malholmes, and many people, myself included, assumed that was the end of the Alex Smith era in Kansas City. Well, he squashed any talk of that for at least one week.

So the opening game of the season started very odd, with Alex Smith looking all world and Tom Brady looking awful. Then, I arrived home, turned on "Red Zone Network", and saw all the horrific QB play in the NFL. The first one that really popped out to me was Tom Savage and the Houston Texans. He got absolutely owned by the Jaguars. The Jacksonville Jaguars. They sacked him 10 times and scored a defensive TD. He looked so much worse than the other terrible QB on the same field that day, Blake Bortles. Don't get me wrong, Bortles was awful too, completing less than 50 percent of his passes, but the Jaguars relied on Leonard Fournette and their defense. And, due to the terrible play of Savage, they ran away with the victory. In fact, the only TD the Texans scored was when Deshaun Watson stepped in and threw a dart to DeAndre Hopkins. The time is now for Watson to be the Texans QB. That much should be clear.

Throughout the rest of the early afternoon games there were some veteran QB's that were just as bad as Savage. Two that come to mind for me are Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton. Between the 2 of them, they had 1 TD and 7 interceptions. Both of their teams got beaten easily too. The Ravens shut out the Bengals and the Lions came back and beat the Cardinals by 2 scores. Both Dalton and Palmer looked old and past their prime. Palmer probably is, but Dalton is still young, but he has only gotten worse every year he has been in the league. Kirk Cousins, betting on himself for the third straight year, looked pretty inconsistent with a whole new group of receivers. He was over and under throwing balls all day and missed an easy TD that could have turned the tide of the game. Not a great start to a season where Cousins expects to get paid big time money.

Then came the late afternoon games. Everyone else in the early games was either fine, or average. I was pumped for the Seahawks-Packers game, and both QB's let me down. Rodgers looked flushed and hurried all game. The only TD he threw was on a busted play where he caught the Seahawks off guard. He looked very average yesterday. Russell Wilson looked even worse. His O-line cannot protect him, and he was running for his life all game against a revamped Packers defense. He was also missing throws and throwing the ball away more often than not. He did not look like the MVP that some writers, not me, predicted him to be this season.

The 2 main horrific QB's I watched were in the late afternoon games though. Scott Tolzien and Brian Hoyer were hot messes yesterday. The fact that Brian Hoyer is still in the NFL is astounding. He wasn't even that good in college. He is, at best, a third stringer in the NFL. But, he keeps finding starting jobs somehow. He was horrendous yesterday. He was sailing balls, missing open guys and getting sacked left and right. He looked timid and frightened every time he stepped back to pass. People need to stop giving Brian Hoyer contracts and starting jobs. He is so bad. I didn't think it couldget much worse than Brian Hoyer, but then I saw the "highlights" of Scott Tolzien. My god is he terrible. He made Jared Goff look like the second coming of Joe Montana. Tolzien has no business setting foot on a professional football field. Hell, I wouldn't even let him quarterback a high school team. He has no leadership of the team. He has no control of the huddle and he puts no fear in the opposing defense at all. Scott Tolzien is the worst QB in the NFL. The fact that he started a game yesterday is an absolute abomination and a total indictment of how poor the NFL is right now.

While watching this shit show, I took to Facebook and Twitter to write a simple 2 word status update. I wrote, "Can someone please explain to me why Scott Tolzien and Brian Hoyer are starting NFL games today, yet Colin Kaepernick remains unsinged? What a joke". That was it. I just put it out in the ether. Of course I got responses, most of them agreeing with my statement. But, there were a few people who said things like, "if he had a QBR of 125, it wouldn't matter. He is no good, that is why he isn't playing". And my favorite, "he is the most unpatriotic person ever".

Lets unpack the, "he's no good" comment first. Colin Kaepernick has been to a Super Bowl. He has won multiple playoff games. Hell, he was okay last year when he got to play, playing on an awful 49ers team. Colin Kapernick is better than at least 10 guys that started yesterday. I would much rather have him than Tom Savage, Carson Palmer, Andy Dalton, Jared Goff, Kirk Cousins, Tyrod Taylor, Josh Mccown, Brian Hoyer, or god help me, Scott freaking Tolzien. He is so much better than any one of these guys. He has achieved more than anyone of those guys too. He has had more success than anyone of those guys. He is a better football player than all of those guys. He belongs on a team, especially more so than the players I just mentioned.

Now for the "unpatriotic" comment. Colin Kaepernick is more patriotic than these morons that claim he is "unpatriotic". Him kneeling for the national anthem is his way of protesting, which is encouraged by most American's because it is a great way to use our freedom of speech. I do not care one bit that he chose to kneel for the anthem. I love the reasons why he chose to kneel. I fully agree with him in fact. The police in the US, not all of them, but most, are cruel individuals who try and get away with more than anyone else. They are power hungry morons that have let what little power they have make their heads explode. They are trigger happy psychopaths that terrify more people than they put at ease.

Secondly, not only does Kaepernick use his freedom of speech to near perfection, he puts his money where his mouth is. He has donated millions of dollars and clothes and food and anything and everything to the certain charities he donates to. He is a good person doing great things in the name of freedom of speech. He is out there doing so much more than anyone who claims to be "patriotic". The people who claim to be "patriotic" are mostly arm chair patriots. They do what I did yesterday. They post some dumb, "I love America", bull shit on their Facebook page, then chastise people like me who think Colin Kaepernick deserves a job in the NFL.

I probably should have kept that thought to myself until today, for my blog, but what I saw yesterday made me angry. People like armchair "patriots", Roger Goodell, and the majority of NFL owners are making me hate a sport that I once loved. I look so much more forward to Saturday's for football than Sunday's now. The NFL is becoming an absolute joke. The powers that be would rather sign and play guys that hit women, Ezekial Elliot, or children, Adrian Peterson, or bully teammates to the point of the contemplating suicide, Richie Incognito, then sign a guy that doesn't want to stand for the stupid ass national anthem. Colin Kaepernick is a much better person than the three people I named, and he is more patriotic than anyone that calls him "unpatriotic". And for those of you that didn't care for my status update yesterday, get used to me stepping up for Kaepernick all season long until he gets his much deserved roster spot on an NFL team. Also, I do not stand for the national anthem anymore too, because I agree with Kaepernick. This country is a mess, and he is one of the good people left.

Thank you for all you do Mr. Kaepernick. You are truly a hero.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is also going to sit for the Canadian Anthem. He will give up that protest when the stop selling those delicious Kit Kats we can not get in the States. How dare they have better candy.

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