After arranging for Colin Kaepernick to work out for the Seattle Seahawks this week, team officials postponed the trip when the quarterback declined to say he would stop kneeling during the national anthem next season, a league source told ESPN on Thursday.
Seattle still is considering bringing in Kaepernick for a tryout, and no decisions are final, a source said.
The Seahawks on Friday signed former Redskins QB Stephen Morris, according to a league source.
The Seahawks had contacted Kaepernick about two weeks ago to arrange a visit to the team’s headquarters, but after tentative arrangements were made and travel was planned, the trip was unexpectedly scuttled over the Seahawks’ last-minute stipulation regarding Kaepernick’s anthem stance, a source told ESPN.
The source said the Seahawks wanted to know that Kaepernick wouldn’t kneel this season, and he was unwilling to give that assurance to them.
The day after his scheduled workout with the Seahawks, Kaepernick sat for his deposition administered by NFL attorneys in New York regarding the league’s alleged attempts to conspire to keep him out of the league.
This comes at a time in which the Cincinnati Bengals visited with San Francisco 49ers free-agent safety Eric Reid, who knelt with Kaepernick during the anthem, and wanted assurances from Reid that he would not participate in on-field activism.
No NFL team has worked out Kaepernick, who once helped lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl, since he became a free agent after the 2016 season. The Seahawks visited with him a year ago and considered it again this week, and the Baltimore Ravens entertained the idea of bringing in Kaepernick last summer.
The Seahawks are still working through their backup quarterback situation and have not decided whom they want to bring in to work behind Russell Wilson. Kaepernick is expected to be one of the options, but other quarterbacks will be considered.
Source: espn.com
