Breaking: Kaepernick’s Kaper (Updated)

Paul noted a couple days ago the very public “workout” publicity stunt of Colin Kaepernick, which was scheduled to go off at 3 pm eastern time today at Atlanta Falcons stadium. But suddenly this morning Kaepernick complained that the media were being overly restricted, and suddenly moved the event to a local high school and delayed the start time.

ESPN reported about an hour ago:

Colin Kaepernick’s NFL workout is being moved to a new location in the Atlanta area and will now start at 4 p.m. ET Saturday, representatives for the quarterback announced Saturday afternoon.

The NFL had previously declined to allow media and cameras into the workout, as Kaepernick had requested for transparency, attorney Ben Meiselas and agent Jeff Nalley said in a statement. They said media would now be allowed to attend the workout.

No idea if it is going off right now or not (I’m at an airport). Former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson was supposed to run the workout, but TMZ reports there are doubts whether this will still happen:

Colin’s team is now saying that if the guy’s still up for it, they’d like to keep the invite open for former Browns coach Hue Jackson to oversee the drills and workout Colin will now go through at the Atlanta-area school. Jackson was originally scheduled to lead Kap through QB drills at the Falcon facility — time will tell if he’ll show to the new location.

Stay tuned for updates.  My hunch is, this workout may not come off at all, but if it does and if teams are unimpressed with his readiness to play, he’ll blame it on the NFL’s conditions that “forced” him to change the venue, and we’ll start a new round of stunts.

UPDATE: Kaepernick held his workout this afternoon, much delayed. The NFL has released a statement which pretty much implies that Kaepernick is done:

We are disappointed that Colin did not appear for his workout. He informed us of that decision at 2:30 p.m. today along with the public.

Today’s session was designed to give Colin what he has consistently said he wants — an opportunity to show his football readiness and desire to return to the NFL. Twenty-five (25) clubs were present for the workout, and all 32 clubs, their head coaches, general managers, and other personnel executives would have received video footage of the interview and workout, shot by the Atlanta Falcons video crew. It is important to note the following:

» As stated above, more than three-fourths of NFL clubs were present for today’s workout.

» The NFL made considerable effort to work cooperatively with Colin’s representatives. We invited his agent to suggest questions for the interview. Yesterday, when Colin’s representatives said he wanted to bring his own receivers to the workout, we agreed to the request. In addition, Coach Hue Jackson discussed with Colin’s agent what drills would be run at the workout so that Colin would know what would be expected of him.

» Last night, when Nike, with Colin’s approval, requested to shoot an ad featuring Colin and mentioning all the NFL teams present at the workout, we agreed to the request.

» On Wednesday, we sent Colin’s representatives a standard liability waiver based on the waiver used by National Invitational Camp at all NFL Combines and by NFL clubs when trying out free agent players. At noon today, Colin’s representatives sent a completely rewritten and insufficient waiver.

» We heard for the first time last night, around the same time we heard from Nike, that Colin wanted to bring his own video crew. We heard for the first time this afternoon that Colin wanted to open the event to all media.

» We agreed to have Colin’s representatives on the field while the workout was being conducted and to allow them to see how it was being recorded. We did so even though we have been clear from the beginning that this is private workout. As is typical with NFL Combines, one video crew was prepared to shoot and distribute video of the interview and workout. We confirmed with Colin’s representatives that they would receive both the video that would be sent to all 32 clubs as well as the raw footage from the entire event, which is unprecedented.

The location Colin selected is more than an hour away from Flowery Branch.

We are grateful to the Falcons, who made available the club’s first-class facility, along with athletic training, equipment, and communications staff to ensure that today’s workout would occur under ideal conditions, to coaches Hue Jackson and Joe Philbin, who were prepared to run a workout that would allow Colin to demonstrate his skill level, and to Jeff Foster and the Combine staff for arranging for other players to participate and for managing the logistics of the workout.

Colin’s decision has no effect on his status in the League. He remains an unrestricted free agent eligible to sign with any club.

Go ahead, Colin. Sign with anyone you want.

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