Colin Kapernick’s been taking heat from all sides this offseason for his decision to kneel during the national anthem last season, but through it all, we haven’t heard much from the free agent quarterback himself. Leave it to Michael Vick to draw a response out of Kap.
Vick, who had a notorious return to the NFL after a prison tenure for dogfighting, joined FS1’s “Speak For Yourself” on Monday as someone who could offer a unique perspective on coming back to the league after being outcast. He played parts of seven more seasons after spending nearly two years in jail from 2007 to 2009.
His advice to Kaepernick, if he truly does want to continue his playing career (some have speculated he may not), was to change up his image. The first step of that process, Vick said, is for Kaepernick to cut his hair.
“First thing we gotta get Colin to do is cut his hair,” Vick said on the show. “Listen, I’m not up here to try to be politically correct, but even if he puts cornrows in it – I don’t think he should represent himself in that way, in terms of, just the hairstyle. Just go clean-cut, why not? You’re already dealing with a lot, a lot of controversy surrounding this issue. Just try to be presentable. Look, all the social media stuff he’s doing, we get it, we understand it. It’s time for Colin to step up in a different way.”
The full clip of Vick’s comments is below. He went on to say that even though he believes Kaepernick’s play in recent years is what’s keeping teams from signing him, becoming more presentable would help him in the eyes of front offices around the league. Vick also said he respects Kaepernick and would give him the same advice if they were sitting face-to-face with each other.
"First thing we got to get Colin to do is cut his hair." — @MikeVick advises Kaepernick on rebuilding his image pic.twitter.com/YENvUPOIgP
— Speak For Yourself (@SFY) July 17, 2017
Social media exploded after the comments were made, as many found it ironic that Vick was the one making such comments given that his transgression was far worse than Kaepernick’s when he fell out of favor in the league.
Tuesday morning, Kaepernick took to Twitter and seemingly took a shot at Vick, posting simply a definition of the phrase “Stockholm syndrome.” Draw your own conclusions, but given the timing, this sure seems to be a direct call-out of Vick.
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) July 18, 2017