Stephen A. Smith weighs in on Jim Harbaugh’s coaching offer to Colin Kaepernick with the Chargers and wonders whether this could be his path back to playing quarterback in the NFL. (2:30)
Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh wants to give quarterback Colin Kaepernick a job — on his coaching staff, not his roster.
“If that was ever the path he was to take, I think that would be tremendous,” Harbaugh told USA Today Sports. “He’d be a tremendous coach, if that’s the path he chose.”
Harbaugh said he reached out to Kaepernick shortly after he took over the Chargers in January about joining him in Los Angeles in a non-playing capacity.
“Yeah, we talked a little bit about it,” Harbaugh told USA Today Sports at training camp last week. “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.”
Kaepernick, 36, played for Harbaugh when he coached the San Francisco 49ers from 2011-14. He has been out of the league since 2016 but recently restated his desire to resume his playing career.
“We’re still training, still pushing,” Kaepernick said to Sky Sports this week. “So, hopefully. We’ve just got to get one of these team owners to open up.”
Kaepernick also told Sky Sports that he “would love” to represent the United States in flag football in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics when the sport will be part of the Summer Games for the first time.
Kaepernick reached an undisclosed settlement with the NFL in 2019 after arguing that owners had colluded to keep him out of the league, essentially blackballing him after he began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice.
Kaepernick posted a 28-30 record with San Francisco from 2011-16, passing for 12,271 yards with 72 touchdowns and 30 interceptions. The 2011 second-round pick took the 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII, where they lost 34-31 to the Baltimore Ravens.
Field Level Media contributed to this report.