The much-hyped workout that former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is set to participate in this weekend might fall through, according to reports.
Teams were allegedly caught off guard by the short notice memo the NFL provided inviting them to attend Kaepernick's workout in Atlanta.
Per The Ringer:
Kaepernick’s team was contacted sometime Tuesday by NFL representatives explaining the request. Most free-agent workouts happen on Tuesday. According to the source, Kaepernick was told that the NFL needed a response “in two hours” if he was serious about the opportunity. Kaepernick and his representatives scrambled to rearrange their schedules to fit in the request, but several around Kaepernick wondered why it came in such an urgent manner. For one, a Saturday tryout conflicts with the regular NFL scouting of college football games; for another, forcing high-end NFL personnel to get on flights to and from Atlanta hours before Sunday’s kickoffs seems likely to limit the number of attendees. “It didn’t make a whole lot of sense,” the source told me.
Kaepernick's team was reportedly turned down by the NFL when they allegedly asked to reschedule the workout to Tuesday the 18th; they were then also denied a request to move the workout to the following Saturday.
Here's what ESPN had to say about the issue:
"I can't tell you that that workout is happening … I'm not convinced it will."@AdamSchefter gives us some very interesting thoughts on Colin Kaepernick's upcoming workout. pic.twitter.com/c9jkT0lyWD
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) November 14, 2019
A report from Yahoo claimed the issues could rise “potentially to the point that the event could still fall apart before Saturday.”
According to Yahoo Sports, these issues include:
Multiple sources familiar with the talks between Kaepernick and the NFL have told Yahoo Sports that several elements of the Saturday workout in Atlanta — which was proposed by the league under a two-hour deadline for a decision on Tuesday — are already running into significant issues. Chief among them, according to sources:
-The NFL has refused to provide a confirmed list of team attendees before the event, allegedly breaking a verbal commitment between the two sides that was reached before Kaepernick agreed to the workout. The league has denied making such a guarantee and refused to give a reason for why the list will not be provided, sources said.
-As of Wednesday evening, no defined throwing script was provided to Kaepernick, despite the event being less than three days away. There was also no indication from the league who Kaepernick would be throwing to. Under typical pro day circumstances, a quarterback is aware of the receivers and running backs he will be working with, as well as a defined structure of the program to suggest how many throws and routes will be expected during the workout.
One team source also added Wednesday they weren't sure who would be attending the event for the franchise.
“We haven’t been told [why],” one team source said of the last-minute timing of the workout. “Other than that [invitation memo] and what is being said about it [in the media], I guess we’re all on the same track with whatever is happening. It’s not normal, but we’re just going with it.”
