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Cleveland Browns

Browns captain fires Twitter shot at Kaepernick

adicjoseph

The Browns have needed a good quarterback for … oh, just since they returned to Cleveland in 1999. They settled for Brock Osweiler this offseason in a stunning trade, and maybe he will be the answer for them that he wasn't for the Texans.

In the process, though, the Browns made pretty clear that they weren't interested in Colin Kaepernick, the 29-year-old who led the 49ers to the Super Bowl all of four years ago and has put up better numbers than Osweiler almost across the board. Why did they resist the free agent?

Let Joe Thomas, the Browns' 10-year Pro Bowl left tackle and team captain, explain:

Now, Thomas' point ignores two important truths:

  1. Kaepernick has been very good as a starter in the past, while his new quarterback simply hasn't.
  2. Kaepernick already has announced that he won't be protesting during The Star-Spangled Banner next season.

That's not to say he won't be a "distraction" in the way that NFL teams like to think of the term. Yes, he will field questions about and discuss topics not limited to football. He'll make his social points, and some of his teammates undoubtedly will disagree with him.

An NFL locker room is a divided political landscape, which is why many players and coaches prefer keeping that kind of talk away from the team atmosphere.

Of course, Thomas' tweet was greeted by a lot of people reminding him of a former teammate who justmaybemighthavebeen a bigger distraction than Kaepernick while he was the Browns' backup quarterback.

Thomas' word holds weight in Cleveland. He and cornerback Joe Haden, who has shown his age in recent seasons, are the stabilizing forces for a franchise that is anything but. Thomas was named a first-team All-Pro for the seventh time last season, despite blocking for a 1-15 team.

Moreover, he's the guy who blocks a quarterback's blind side. And while he's not coming right out and saying he wouldn't want to block for Kaepernick, he's also not hiding anything by @-mentioning him in these tweets. Thomas doesn't speak for his front office, but he does offer a reminder of the type of things that the NFL community considers a distraction.

Meanwhile, Kaepernick has been using social media to promote famine relief in Somalia.

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