LeSean McCoy Says Kaepernick 'Not Good Enough' to Be Worth Distraction
There are many, including the more than 1,000 who protested in front of the NFL headquarters yesterday, who believe that the sole reason Colin Kaepernick is not on an NFL roster is because of his decision to sit during the national anthem last year.
Bills running back LeSean McCoy is not one of those people.
McCoy, 29, was asked about his opinions on the national anthem protest that is growing around the league, and his brutally honest answer also addressed his thoughts on the Kaepernick situation.
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“This is a lot going on with this whole Kaepernick situation. In this country you can believe what you want," McCoy told The Buffalo News. "Freedom of speech. If guys want to stand, they can stand. I think maybe they can choose a better platform to state their beliefs. One thing I learned about just here in America is that people, they’re followers. There’s some that you may ask about these different topics, but they’ll say what they heard, not what actually know, even with the Kaepernick situation."
"It’s a lot more than just he’s not on the team because he doesn’t want to stand for the national anthem. That may have something to do with it, but I think also it has a lot to do with his play. I’m sure a lot of teams wouldn’t want him as their starting quarterback. That chaos that comes along with it, it’s a lot. As a team, trying to win and not have a distraction on the team, I just take that as a player – there’s certain players that could be on the team with big distractions, and there’s other players that it’s not good enough or not worth it. I think his situation is not good enough to have him on the team with all the attention that comes along with it."
McCoy cited Tom Brady and Odell Beckham Jr. as players whose protests teams would put up with. The running back also discussed the similarity (or lack thereof) between Kaepernick's situation and that of Michael Vick, who joined McCoy on the Eagles after serving jail time for his involvement in a dog fighting ring.
"That’s a great example. You take a guy like Michael Vick who went through what he went through. He’s 10 times better than Kaepernick," McCoy said. "You’ll deal with that situation, that attention, that media aspect of it. The good, the bad attention you’ll get. Compared to Kaepernick, it’s like, he’s not really that good of a player to deal with."
