Hoax, Or No Hoax, The New York Jets Should Sign Colin Kaepernick
The whole world is spending too much time A) on Twitter and B) missing their regularly scheduled sports content. So when a parody account pretending to be ESPN's SportsCenter tweeted out that the New York Jets had signed quarterback Colin Kaepernick to a 1-year, $9 million deal, people lost their collective minds.
The person behind it was Barry McCockiner, a comedian who's been trolling the sports world for some time now. Hard up for any sports news, people really bought into it -- everyone from Tommy Chong to Donna Brazile tweeted out gratefulness to the Jets -- which is an emotion concept most in the Jets organization believed to be only mythical ("I heard legends of it, but that must have been some 50 years ago ...").
Now, it seems, despite the hoax, Kaepernick is actually going to contact the Jets, as he should. Kaepernick, for his part, is still all over social media showing off his workout routines and how in-shape he still is. If you're making him compete for the backup job with David Fales, a QB who got ditched twice by the BEARS, what's the harm in trying?
As Jon Bois, over at SBNation, has illustrated in a very good Chart Party video, there's a ton of actually solid reasons to sign Kaepernick from a football perspective.
The dude went to a Super Bowl. That doesn't happen by accident. And from a story standpoint, this could not be a better narrative. The Jets don't need to sign a starter, so giving Kaepernick time to ride the bench and just learn would be fine. It'd also create serious buzz around the team in a time when not only the major media market of New York, but all of America, is absolutely starved for any kind of new developments in the sports world.
The Jets are also not strangers to signing opinionated backup QBs -- all you gotta do is look back at their use of Tim Tebow. They took a dual-threat QB who wasn't far removed from a thrilling playoff victory in Denver over Pittsburgh, made him run a bunch of not-quarterback plays, and then ran him out of town. Signing Kaepernick like that would be a Jets move to top every Jets move. What's the worse that could happen, they continue to battle for 3rd in the AFC East while getting overlooked in favor of the Giants? OoooOoOOo, scary.
This is a match made in heaven for a parody of a franchise and orchestrated by a parody Twitter account. Make it happen, Jets.
Top Image: Au Kirk/Wiki Commons
