Colin Kaepernick should return to NFL, says former American football star Osi Umenyiora
Former American football star Osi Umenyiora has joined growing calls for controversial quarterback Colin Kaepernick to return to the NFL, after the ex-San Francisco 49ers star settled his complaint against the league.
Kaepernick acquired worldwide fame when starting the #TakeAKnee movement, kneeling during the American national anthem in protest at social injustice, but has not played since becoming a free-agent at the end of the 2016 season.
Along with former teammate Eric Reid, Kaepernick complained that the NFL and team owners had colluded to keep him out of the sport, a case that was settled under undisclosed terms last week.
Kaepernick’s lawyer told CNN on Saturday that the 31-year-old still hopes to resume his professional career, and when asked whether he thought we would see him return, two-time Super Bowl winner Umenyiora told Standard Sport: “I think we should.
“Whether we will see him back by the start of the season I don’t know. We know that two years ago he was definitely good enough to play in the NFL.”
Some critics believe that Kaepernick’s willingness to settle under non-disclosure terms, which means the NFL do not have to publically admit to any wrongdoing, represents something of a sell-out.
“I don’t know whether he ‘won’ or he ‘lost’ because we don’t know the terms of the settlement,” Umenyiora added.
“But the fact that they settled means [the NFL] obviously conceded something.
“He sacrificed a lot, so I’m very happy for him.”
Former New York Giants star Umenyiora is busy preparing for a huge challenge of his own – climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief.
The BBC NFL Show pundit is one of nine celebrities setting out to conquer Africa’s tallest mountain next week, joining the likes of former MP Ed Balls, Love Island star Dani Dyer and Little Mix duo Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock, and admits he “doesn’t know much” about his new teammates.
“The BBC asked me if I’d be interested in doing it, and when I looked into what it was for and the people I’d be helping, I said yes,” he said.
“I don’t know much about [the other celebrities] at all, though I know some of Little Mix’s songs!”
Umenyiora’s appearance on such a mainstream television event is testament to the growth of the NFL in the UK, but the 37-year-old knows he will still be an unfamiliar face to many viewers, who will also be unaware of his British birth and early upbringing.
“I’ll be something different,” he said. “People aren’t going to see the way I talk and the way I behave and believe I was raised in Britain for eight years.
“They’ll think: ‘No way is this guy British!'”
Despite boasting an obvious physical advantage over his fellow climbers, Umenyiora is taking nothing for granted when it comes to tackling the 5,895m peak.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,” he said. “[In my playing days] I never trained at altitude. We played a game in Denver, they call it the mile-high stadium, but I only ever played there once.
“Being on your feet for that amount of time, 11, 12 hour days – I’m used to doing a lot of shorter sprints.”
To donate, visit comicrelief.com/Kilimanjaro. Track the team’s progress every day next week (from Monday 25th) week on BBC Breakfast, on BBC1 from 6am, and The One Show on BBC1 at 7pm.
