Bill Belichick said he didn’t know if the New England Patriots would be attending quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s workout, organized by the NFL to take place on Saturday afternoon in Atlanta.
“It’s something we can check with (Patriots director of player personnel) Nick (Caserio) on,” Belichick said Wednesday during a press conference on Wednesday. “I’m not sure.”
The Patriots did not respond with comment from Caserio at the time of publication of this article.
Kaepernick has been out of the league since he played for the San Francisco 49ers in 2016, which followed his protest efforts by taking a knee during the national anthem at NFL games. When he’d spent an extended time out of the NFL, he and former 49ers teammate Eric Reid filed grievances against the league through the NFL Players Association, and Kaepernick and Reid received an undisclosed settlement.
The league put together a workout for Kaepernick on short notice, and informed him of the potential meeting with teams on Tuesday, at which point they gave him just hours to make a decision, according to ESPN. And while most NFL teams will be traveling for games on Saturday (and Kaepernick’s representation asked the workout be moved to Tuesday, a day when evaluators will be freer to travel), the NFL declined to move the date, per ESPN. It’s unclear how many teams will attend the workout, but former Patriots linebacker coach and current Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores confirmed his staff will send someone.
