The New England Patriots will attend the much-publicized workout for quarterback Colin Kaepernick on Saturday in Atlanta, the NFL announced on Thursday. The Patriots are among a list of 11 teams who will have a representative present.
Former NFL head coach Hue Jackson will lead the drills, with assistantence from fellow former NFL coach Joe Philbin. The league has not made the workout public to the media, but it intends to send a video of the workout and Kaepernick’s interview to all NFL teams.
Kaepernick has been out of the NFL since 2016 when he played for the San Francisco 49ers. He and former 49ers teammate Eric Reid filed a collusion grievance through the NFLPA with accusations that the league blackballed him after he protested police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem.
The NFL proposed this meeting between Kaepernick and NFL teams on Tuesday, and gave him just hours to respond, per ESPN. Kaepernick’s team requested the workout get moved to Tuesday or a later date, which would make it more accessible to NFL personnel evaluators, who are usually on the road on Saturdays, but the league wouldn’t adjust their proposal.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Reid said Wednesday. “At this point, it feels like a PR stunt.”
