Across the country, football teams at all levels of the game are in high gear in preparation for the upcoming season.
    And along with the annual traditions of dusting off the industrial-sized grill, flying the team flag off of the garage and making sure coolers are capable of keeping beverages cold throughout the day-long tailgate is the preseason rite of passage known as coach-speak.
    You’ve heard it even if you don’t know it. Coach-speak encompasses all of the platitudes meant to shine the best light on a team while there are no losses or injuries that would make fans think otherwise.
    At the high school level, coaches are always ‘excited about the work the team put in during the summer.’ In college, teams are usually ‘looking to build off of last season and get better each day.” And in the pros, teams are always ‘looking forward to seeing what we’ve done in the offseason playing out on the field.’
    And universally, every coach anywhere will assure you that all positions are up for grabs and that ‘the best guy will start.’
    But there’s a problem with that last bit of wisdom. And it’s evident in the National Football League - easily the biggest stage in American sports.
    At the quarterback position - the most important position in the country’s most competitive sport - one of the best in the world remains conspicuously absent from all 32 rosters. We’re just a couple of weeks from kickoff in the NFL and Colin Kaepernick - a guy who had a winning record before last season and who still has a career mark of 72 touchdown passes to just 30 interceptions - is being treated like a perennial loser who passes to defensive backs more often than receivers.
    And why?
    It’s not because he isn’t a winner. Kaepernick was a two-time all conference player in college and was 25-14 as a starter in his first three seasons. He was also within a few yards of winning a Super Bowl and a few more short of returning to the big game again in the next season.
    It’s also not because of his work ethic. Even as his San Francisco 49er team crumbled around him following the deep playoff runs, Kaepernick was viewed as a bright spot on the squad and teammates continue to sing his praises as a leader.
Nope. There is nothing that Kaepernick has or hasn’t done on the field that is costing him a job.
    After a full year of hand-wringing from fans and front office types alike, it’s clear that the NFL is unwilling to sign Kaepernick because hasty politically and morally charged outbursts from the public are now viewed as more detrimental to the league’s business than employing players with a rap sheet that features more lines than their stat sheet.
    Kaepernick started off with the deck stacked against him, born to a 19-year old mother and immediately put up for adoption. Socially speaking, things didn’t get much easier as Kaepernick - a mixed race child - was raised by a white family in primarily white towns in Wisconsin and California. Many kids faced with such adversity will crack, but Kaepernick excelled, notching a 4.0 GPA in high school and earning a scholarship to college before playing his way into the NFL.
    And amidst a new peer group that continues to be drafted high and get lucrative contracts despite arrest records, drug issues, domestic violence complaints and convictions and myriad other problems, Kaepernick has apparently committed the most egregious offense of them all by kneeling quietly in an attempt to make a point.
    Yes, the song he’s kneeling for is as revered as there is in America. Sure, some may see it as disrespectful. But it is a protest, after all, and what good is a protest if it doesn’t make a big enough splash to be noticed?
    But that’s not the point.
    Unfortunately, Kaepernick’s cause is lost amidst the animosity and vitriol of people who can’t see past a simple and poignant action. I haven’t - and won’t - mention the reason for Kaepernick’s protest in this column. And if you don’t know what it is, but submit to criticizing him for it anyways, well, there’s really no reason to read any further.
    It’s incredible that a person with Kaepernick’s quarterbacking talent would be a starter - if not a highly paid backup - if you were to put his skill set in the body of any non-controversial person. In a league that loves to brag about merit and hard work and dedication, it’s a guy who qualifies in those categories for both football talent and philanthropic thinking that is now drawing scorn.
    And in perhaps the most unbelievable part of this whole saga - after it became clear that this simple action of kneeling for the national anthem and making the occasional peaceful but forceful comment about his views on the world - Kaepernick has stuck to his guns. His stats and video reel would let him walk into any training camp today if he wanted to give up his fight, but he is choosing to stick to his convictions and face down a public scorn that is damaging his professional career worse than any blindside blitz.
    The last couple of years have seen many causes fought for in different ways. Peaceful protests have been derided as pointless. Loud protests have been condemned as riots. Invasive protests have been feared as potential breaking points for society.
    And so, in a country where there is no good way to speak up, and where there is no form of dissent that won’t lead to vilification, Kaepernick is still wanting to play - but only if he can also have his voice heard.
    It’s funny how a guy known best for kneeling seems to be standing taller than most who want to speak against him.