Three questions often asked by scouts for pro sports teams might give a lot of insight into why Colin Kaepernick still can’t get a job.
I grew up in the sports world. I was surrounded by athletes and coaches at some of the highest levels, and several years ago I had a long talk with a college basketball coach about the three questions all basketball scouts ask when they’re looking a college player for a potential shot at the pros.
The questions are as follow:
1. What is the athlete’s work ethic?
Is he always the first one in the gym? Does he stay late? How many reps is he getting outside of scheduled practices? Is he constantly on the phone with staff and teammates to find somebody to workout with? How much time does he spend watching tape? Will he stay late after a bad practice to put in another 30 minutes of voluntary work? Even more importantly, will he skip going to a party after a game on Friday night to watch tape and do some work if he had a rough game?
2. What are the athlete’s party habits?
Scouts wanted to know if the athlete drank, did drugs or had any other vices. They really didn’t care if an athlete liked to drink in his free time out of the season, or even occasionally did drugs. However, they have a huge problems with athletes who can’t tone down during the season. For proof of this look no further than Johnny Manziel.
3. How many women do you think the athlete has had sex with?
The exact wording of the question was something more along the lines of, “does he feel the need to put his penis in every woman he sees.” This one surprised me a lot, but it essentially boiled down to the idea scouts feel athletes with many sexual partners are risky investments on the part of the team. They are seen as even riskier investments if they often engage in sex with women they barely know.
Those three questions can give us a lot of insight into why Kaepernick still can’t find a job. Only one of those questions actually has to do with athletic performance, and it’s actually a lot more about preparation over actual talent.
The scouts cared way more about issues off of the court and personality. This is proof that even if Kaepernick is good enough on that field that he might not check the boxes necessary when it comes to off the field issues.
Pro sports teams spend millions to successfully vet potential players. They don’t just ask a couple questions and then move forward.
There could be several things scouts and GMs are finding to give plenty of pause on signing Kaepernick. Maybe he’s not dedicated to the game anymore, perhaps he has problems in his personal or a variety of different reasons.
Don’t believe because he can simply throw a football at a mediocre rate that there aren’t other things scouts haven’t found.