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President Donald Trump has been a consistent critic of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and lobbed his latest barb on Friday morning.

When asked if he thought Kaepernick should get an opportunity to play again in the NFL, Trump said "only if he's good enough."

"Only if he's good enough," Trump said outside the White House. "If he was good enough, they'd hire him. Why wouldn't he play if he was good enough? I think if he's good enough, I know the owners - I know (Patriots owner Robert) Kraft, I know so many of the owners - if he's good enough, they'd sign him. ...

"So I'd like to see it. Frankly, I'd love to see Kaepernick come in, if he's good enough. But I don't want to see him come in because somebody thinks it's a good PR move."

Two days ago, Kaepernick posted a video to his social media accounts, saying he's "still ready" after he settled a collusion grievance against NFL owners in February, alleging that the group denied him work over his outspoken activism.

In the video, Kaepernick was shown in a gym exercising and training with the message: "5am. 5 days a week. For 3 years. Still Ready," a likely reference to his workout schedule to maintain his fitness.

"Colin has always been prepared to compete at the highest level and is in the best shape of his life," a person familiar with Kaepernick's quest to return to the NFL told USA TODAY Sports on Friday. The person was granted anonymity because of the sensitivity of Kaepernick's comeback efforts.

Kaepernick's last NFL appearance was in Week 17 of the 2016 season when he played for the San Francisco 49ers. Shortly after that season, Kaepernick opted out of his contract as he sought a better deal, but he has since remained a free agent.

Also in the video was a graphic courtesy of @KapWatch stating the quarterback had been "denied work" for 889 days.

Kaepernick sparked a larger movement and conversation when he decided to protest police brutality and social inequality by first sitting and then kneeling during the pre-game playing of the national anthem in the 2016 season. Many other NFL players followed suit and used their platform to bring awareness and devote resources to various social causes, such as criminal justice reform.
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Still, Kaepernick has remained a frequent target of Trump's criticisms.

In August 2016, Trump said Kaepernick "maybe ... should find a country that works better for him."

In September 2017, Trump said NFL owners should "get that son of a bitch off the field" when any players protest during the national anthem. After widespread protests and displays of unity from players and teams throughout the league shortly after, Trump said in October 2018 that the NFL "should've suspended" Kaepernick for his protests of social inequality during the anthem.

Last September, Trump said that a Nike ad campaign featuring Kaepernick sent a "terrible message."
Contributing: A.J. Perez Follow Lorenzo Reyes on Twitter @LorenzoGReyes.
In six seasons with the 49ers, Kaepernick, 31, threw for 12,271 yards and 72 touchdowns with 31 interceptions, and also ran for 2,300 more yards and 13 rushing scores.

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Donald Trump: Colin Kaepernick should only get NFL return opportunity 'if he's good enough'

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President Donald Trump has been a consistent critic of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and lobbed his latest barb on Friday morning. When asked if he thought Kaepernick should get an opportunity to play again in the NFL, Trump said "only if he's good enough."

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So much has been made about NFL players carrying out protests during the national anthem that it's easy to forget how this all started: Colin Kaepernick, then a quarterback for the 49ers, sitting quietly on a bench during the anthem before a 2016 preseason game.

As Kaepernick later explained, his protest had nothing to do with the military. He was protesting police violence against minorities. After talking with Army vet and former Seahawks long snapper Nate Boyer, Kaepernick decided that, in order to show respect for those who have served, he would no longer sit during the anthem. Boyer suggested a new form of protest...

"I expressed to him, maybe there's a different way of demonstrating, where you're showing more respect for those who laid down their lives for what that flag and anthem stand for," Boyer said of his conversation with Kaepernick. "I suggested kneeling, because people kneel to pray; we'll kneel in front of a fallen brother's grave."

Kaepernick, and other players, have been called "unpatriotic" for kneeling during the anthem, but the idea came from a man who very clearly loves this country and has served to protect the freedoms that it provides its citizens, including the freedom to protest in a peaceful manner.

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A reminder that an Army vet suggested Colin Kaepernick kneel during the anthem

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So much has been made about NFL players carrying out protests during the national anthem that it's easy to forget how this all started: Colin Kaepernick, then a quarterback for the 49ers, sitting quietly on a bench during the anthem before a 2016 preseason game.

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robert kraft offers apology after charges of soliciting prostitution - cnn

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Robert Kraft offers apology after charges of soliciting prostitution

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New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft publicly broke his silence for the first time since charges of soliciting prostitution were brought against him in Florida.

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During his annual pre-Super Bowl news conference last week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sidestepped a question about President Trump's complaints that the game had gone soft, insisting, "We have a lot of fans, the president among them."

Trump may sometimes sound like Joey from Tarzana or some other talk-radio caller, screaming about "S.O.B." players who should be "fired!" for kneeling during the national anthem. But as president, he has generated far more headaches forNFL team owners.

For two years, at rallies and in tweets, Trump's slams against the NFL players' protest stoked divisions over race and patriotism. Last fall, however, the president ceased his attacks, even calling the NFL a "great American company" during a rally in Minnesota.

The baffling ceasefire has continued as the league prepared for its annual showcase, the Super Bowl, on Sunday between the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots. Yet even as NFL owners are relieved to have Trump off their backs, the raw memories of his past taunts falsely impugning players' patriotism and even the games' television ratings have left them wary of setting him off again.
More Super Bowl coverage from the L.A. Times "
People who work in and around the league, as well as current and former administration officials, attribute the truce to a number of factors. Among them: league owners' capitulation to his demand that they curb on-field player protests, the rebound in TV ratings and, perhaps, Trump's sense that he's squeezed all the political juice he can from the issue.

But the decisive event, according to several people, may have been an overture from one of Trump's closest friends, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, seeking his assistance on an obscure trade issue that would allow the league to reap millions more dollars from Canadian broadcasting rights to the Super Bowl.

"He was quite happy he could get that problem solved," said a senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "The tension eased after that."

Trump's ability to deliver a favor for the league's billionaire owners - a club that shunned him for decades as he sought to buy his own team - gave him an opportunity to declare victory while the NFL hierarchy bowed to his power. He had failed as an owner in a rival league in the 1980s, and his subsequent attempts to buy a coveted NFL franchise, including the Buffalo Bills in 2014, were consistently rebuffed.

"He has the ultimate consolation prize in that he gets to sort of heckle from the Oval Office," said Mark Leibovich, author of "Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times." "He loves wielding power over powerful, wealthy people - especially powerful, wealthy people that have rejected him over four decades."

Trump learned the power of bashing the NFL late in his 2016 presidential campaign. It was risky in a way, given that football fans hold a variety of political views.

But the decision that year of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to kneel during the national anthem, to protest police brutality and racial injustice, proved too alluring for the president. Trump wrapped himself around an American flag pole at rallies, stoking white racial anxiety.

"Whenever the president finds himself in a political pickle - to put it crudely - he reaches for the culture wars," said Eddie S. Glaude Jr., chairman of the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University.

The president ignored the racial message that the mostly African American players sought to convey. He learned quickly that he could elicit loud, appreciative boos whenever he disparaged Kaepernick or accused players of disrespecting the anthem and the flag.

The president's rhetoric peaked just ahead of the 2017 football season, when Trump held a rally in Alabama for Sen. Luther Strange, a Republican running in a special election. Trump, trying to rouse the listless crowd, seized on the protests.

"Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say: 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now? Out. He's fired. He's fired!' " Trump said, his voice building to a near-roar.

He blamed the league's poor ratings on the controversy and urged supporters to "pick up and leave" a game if players protested, something Vice President Mike Pence did a month later in Indianapolis, in a move that detractors claimed was staged.

Team owners, who take pains to insulate the league from politics and market the sport with displays of patriotism, were petrified.

"They didn't know what to do," said Ari Fleischer, a former spokesman for President George W. Bush who has been a communications consultant for several teams. "They were flummoxed. Who in sports knows what to do when you're attacked by the president of the United States?"

The NFL, which was facing a more existential threat over players' brain injuries, doubled its federal lobbying budget in 2018 from the prior year, to $1.64 million, more than it had ever spent, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The owners also began direct talks with Trump to implore him to stop his attacks, to no avail.

"This is a very strong, winning issue for me," Trump told Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, according to a deposition in a grievance filed by Kaepernick, who accuses the league of colluding to end his career. The deposition was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal last year.

"Tell everybody you can't win this one," Trump told Jones. "This one lifts me."

Another owner, the Miami Dolphins' Stephen Ross, testified that the president's message was delivered to fellow owners and squelched any support among them for the players' protests. The league would eventually create policies that effectively kept most players from kneeling during the anthem. The effort alienated many fans and celebrities but began the process of quieting Trump.

"I don't think there's any doubt that the owners capitulated," said Mark Geragos, Kaepernick's attorney. "The NFL has decided that Colin is a persona non grata, and I think they've done it because of Trump."

A former White House official largely agreed, saying the NFL's decision to keep protesting players in the locker room during the anthem deprived the media-savvy Trump of a visual image to target.

NFL officials did not respond to requests for comment.
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Even at the height of the acrimony, Trump kept up his relationships with owners, who include some of the wealthiest Republican donors. He tapped Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets, to be ambassador to Britain, one of the most coveted foreign postings. Kraft in 2017 merited a seat at the president's small dinner table with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

About a year ago, Kraft called Trump for a favor. In Canada, some viewers prefer to watch American commercials during the Super Bowl, given their cultural cachet. The owners wanted Canada to restore a rule mandating Canadian ads, even on American television feeds, to increase the value of the television rights there - and thus the price the NFL could charge.

Trump took up the owners' cause with gusto.

He moved the issue to the top of his list of demands when American and Canadian officials met to renegotiate a trade agreement last year, according to a senior White House official. "There's no deal without it," the Americans insisted.

As trade goes, football ads were hardly on the level of issues including dairy or aluminum sales. But it mattered to Trump.

Because it mattered to the NFL. Goodell, who rarely says anything about a politician for fear of seeming partisan, called the president to thank him and put out a statement praising Trump's "leadership and determination." (Canadians can still watch American ads this year because the revised trade pact has not been ratified by the countries' legislatures.)

The flattery seems to have worked. After declining last year to agree to what's become something of a tradition - a Sunday interview coinciding with the Super Bowl - Trump agreed to sit down with CBS, the network carrying the game. He also tweeted congratulations to Kraft, as well as Patriots Coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, while ignoring the Rams.

Not only has Trump stopped taunting the league, but he's also begun boasting of his ability to fix problems and help it thrive. He has brought up the Canadian trade issue several times, including at rallies in October and again last week in an interview with the conservative Daily Caller.

"I was very pleased that he called me to thank me for helping him with Canada," Trump said of Goodell.

Then he took it a step further, defending Goodell against angry New Orleans Saints fans who want him fired over a blown call that cost their team a spot in the Super Bowl. The league's games, he said, "have really been good, other than one call."
Follow the latest news of the Trump administration on Essential Washington "

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For years, Trump bashed the NFL and players who protested racial injustice. Here's why he stopped

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During his annual pre-Super Bowl news conference last week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sidestepped a question about President Trump's complaints that the game had gone soft, insisting, "We have a lot of fans, the president among them." Trump may sometimes sound like Joey from Tarzana or some other talk-radio caller, screaming about "S.O.B."

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A lot of people associate the Patriots with Donald Trump. There has even been tweets about the Patriots being associate with Trump.

“Atlanta Falcons 7, Donald Trump nothing.” It was like the Patriots didn't have an identity anymore.

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There is a kind of a slave mentality behind the ownership in the NFL these days....

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Colin Kaepernick: Kneeling During the National Anthem

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Colin Kaepernick: Kneeling During the National Anthem

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There was so much uproar when Kaepernick first knelt during the National Anthem. When Trump got involved he made the situation much worse than it needed to be.