Colin Kaepernick isn’t usually a man of many words, but the 49ers quarterback had plenty to say Thursday during an interview with the New York Post. That link will take you to the full article, but here are some highlights of his interview with Bart Hubbuch.
“I think everyone knows his comments were ridiculous,” Kaepernick told the Post.
“As my dad has always told me, if you have to tell people how good you are, then how good are you really? If you have to go on national TV and try to say you’re the best cornerback in the league, then you’ve got your own insecurities.”
Kaepernick said he still has no regrets about throwing to Michael Crabtree on the play that turned into the NFC championship game-clinching interception.
“I don’t care who’s out there,” he said. “I had Crabtree one-on-one with half of the field to himself, and I’m going to take that every single time. He made a good play on that ball, but if I throw it a foot farther, it’s a touchdown and now you’re the goat, Richard Sherman.”
And yeah, that’s sort of true, but that’s also true of about a million plays in sports. If Dennis Eckersley had thrown that pitch a little lower, Kirk Gibson might be the goat. The fact remains that Sherman made the play, and Kaepernick didn’t. I’m also not sure Sherman doesn’t get his hand on a ball thrown a little farther, and it’s possible anything thrown completely out of Sherman’s reach would have forced Crabtree to make the catch out of bounds. There’s a reason so many fade routes down the sideline thrown at Sherman end in interceptions, and it isn’t that every quarterback just barely under throws them.
As for the choke signal Sherman said was directed towards Kaepernick (and that also earned Sherman a flag and subsequent fine for taunting), Kaepernick said, “Did that make you feel better about yourself? Then go ahead, because I’m not worried about you. I’m just worried winning games and helping us get to the Super Bowl.
“I can’t get insulted by something that ridiculous coming from somebody like that. From the time that [championship-game final] play ended to the time his [postgame] news conference ended, let’s just say it wasn’t very politically correct.”
As a fan of rivalries and the trash talk that can come from them, I’m all for this, but still, the timing could be better for Kaepernick. He is, after all, in New York where the Seahawks, not the 49ers, are about to play in the Super Bowl. Unfortunately these comments came to light after Sherman’s press availability, so he wasn’t asked about it, but had he been, the easiest comeback might have been a simple, “Scoreboard.”
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