Colin Kaepernick suggests any claim from Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh that he had been offered an opportunity to join the staff was false.
Kaepernick made the comments during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon where he was promoting his new children’s book.
Rumors circulated earlier this year that Harbaugh might offer Kaepernick a role on the Chargers coaching staff. He had previously expressed interest in bringing him on as a quarterbacks coach.
“If that was ever the path he was to take, I think that would be tremendous,” Harbaugh told reporters, teasing the possibility. “He’d be a tremendous coach, if that’s the path he chose.”
Then he moved beyond teasing the idea and flat-out told USA Today that he offered him a job.
“He’s considering it. He was out of the country. He said he was going to get back to me,” Harbaugh said. “We haven’t reconnected since then. That was early, early in the year.”
Colin Kaepernick Denies Jim Harbaugh Offered Him Coaching Job
Whatever Harbaugh was trying to accomplish with those statements backfired in a hurry. He was forced into a public declaration that Kaepernick would not be joining his team in any capacity – as coach or player.
“I love Colin, and always will, and that gets conflated into he might play here or might coach here,” Harbaugh said. “I love Colin, but he’s not going to be on the coaching staff — it’s set for this year.”
“And he’s not going to be playing on the roster either.”
Narrator: It wasn’t ‘conflated’. Harbaugh said what he said. I mean, what the heck is he talking about?
The connection between Jim Harbaugh and Colin Kaepernick is undeniable, as they both worked together during their time with the San Francisco 49ers. Kaepernick led the 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2013 where they lost to the Baltimore Ravens 34-31.
That said, Kap seems confused as to how he could be “considering it (a coaching job)” if he didn’t even know about it.
“It is not true,” he told Fallon.
“I found out the same way everyone else did — on social media. I was like, ‘Oh, I got a coaching offer.’ No, no coaching offer,” Kaepernick added.
RELATED: Colin Kaepernick Suggests He Isn’t Playing Football Because He’s Being ‘Held Out’ Of NFL
He’s Only Interested In Playing
It’s pretty wild hearing Colin Kaepernick basically accuse Jim Harbaugh of lying about the entire situation. And the former 49ers quarterback went on to insist he isn’t interested in coaching – only playing.
“No interest in coaching,” Kaepernick said. “I need the adrenaline rush of playing and being in it, or I think I can have more impact in other places with my time.”
One NFL insider poured cold water on the idea, suggesting the idea that Kaepernick could still play at an elite level and deliver a championship is “delusional.”
The now-36-year-old Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers following the 2016 NFL season to pursue a career in activism.
He has not been in the league since a loss to the Seattle Seahawks on January 1st, 2017, capping off a brutal 2-14 season for the team.
He and his wife are currently promoting their new children’s book, We Are Free, You & Me. He told NPR in an interview that he would continue training for a comeback as a way to show the world he “was held out of (the NFL).”
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