Colin Kaepernick is making his return to the football field as a playable character on the sport’s biggest video game, Madden 21.
What We Know:
- Game developer EA Sports announced that an update was released on Tuesday that allows players to add Kaepernick to any NFL lineup for the first time since 2016. “Colin Kaepernick is one of the top free agents in football and a starting-caliber quarterback,” EA Sports said in a statement on Tuesday. “We look forward to seeing Colin on Madden NFL teams everywhere.”
Welcome Back, Kap! pic.twitter.com/fmq6SkMAVf
— Madden NFL 21 (@EAMaddenNFL) September 8, 2020
- In Kaepernick’s last NFL season he played as a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, but after opting out of his contract at the end of the season in 2016, he has remained an unsigned, free agent player since. The athlete made headlines in 2016 for first sitting, then kneeling while the national anthem was played before games, an act of protest against police brutality and racial injustice. In 2019, Kaepernick, and 49ers safety Eric Reid who joined in the protest, settled their grievances with the NFL after both players accused the league of colluding to exclude them from playing for taking a knee.
- According to EA Sports, Kaepernick will be the top-rated, free-agent quarterback available in Madden 21 with an 81 overall rating. The rating was determined by prior on-field performance along with the developer’s data-driven simulation ratings. This rating puts him among the top 15 highest-rated quarterbacks in the game, out of 111 quarterbacks total, surpassing quarterbacks like Kyler Murray, Ryan Tannehill, and Cam Newton.
- EA Sports said that they approached Kaepernick prior to the launch of Madden 21 to work with him in personalizing his own avatar. The developer shared that Kaepernick requested to be portrayed with an afro and that his signature celebration move following a touchdown or other big play to be him raising his fist, a nod to the Black Power salute used in protest against racial injustice. The raised fist is also a reflection of how he celebrated on scoring plays when he last took the field.
- Back in June, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told ESPN that he encouraged teams to sign Kaepernick, but this did not sit right with many NFL players who believed Goodell and the league needed to offer Kaepernick an apology for the handling of the kneeling situation. New Orleans Saints’ safety, Malcolm Jenkins, criticized Goodell’s statement for failing to adequately address the NFL’s poor handling of Kaepernick. “Until they apologize, specifically, to Colin Kaepernick, or assign him to a team, I don’t think that they will end up on the right side of history,” Jenkins said.
Fans can choose to start playing with Kaepernick on their team in franchise mode starting today. To celebrate Kaepernick’s return and the start of the NFL season, EA Sports announced Madden NFL 21 will be free-to-play Thursday, September 10 through Sunday, September 13, so that all fans have an opportunity to play with Kaepernick.
