Colin Kaepernick has a different version of events on an offseason job offer Jim Harbaugh said he gave the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback. Kaepernick revealed his side of the story on an appearance this week on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
In August, Harbaugh told Jarrett Bell of USA Today that Kaepernick was offered a coaching job on the Chargers for the upcoming season.
“Yeah, we talked a little bit about it,” Harbaugh said. “He’s considering it. He was out of the country. He said he was going to get back to me. We haven’t reconnected since then. That was early, early in the year.”
Jim Harbaugh said he would hire Colin Kaepernick
A few days after the report, Harbaugh clarified his remarks, stating Kaepernick would not be on the team as a quarterback or coach for the 2024 season. Harbaugh suggested the door is open for Kaepernick to coach on the Chargers in the future and that the national championship-winning coach believes Kaepernick would be a great leader in that capacity.
Kaepernick says he wasn’t offered a job with the Chargers
Kaepernick doesn’t recall that conversation with Harbaugh. The 36-year-old activist told Fallon that the story wasn’t true.
‘It is not true,” Kaepernick said of his receiving any offers to coach in the NFL. “It is not true. I actually found out the same way everyone else did–on social media. I was like, ‘Oh, I got a coaching offer.’ No, no coaching offer.
So, would the former second-round pick out of Nevada ever return to the league as a coach?
“No interest in coaching,” Kaepernick said. “For me, I need the adrenaline rush of playing and being in it, or I can have more impact in other places with my time.”
Either Kaepernick isn’t telling the truth, or Harbaugh isn’t. Maybe the “conversation” Harbaugh claims to have had with Kaepernick wasn’t perceived as serious talk.
Regardless, Kaepernick made it clear to Fallon that he wants to join the NFL, but on his terms as a quarterback. If Kaepernick were to turn down a legitimate opponent to coach in the league, he couldn’t claim the NFL was blackballing him any longer.
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