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Jim Harbaugh sure made it sound like Colin Kaepernick turned down the chance to serve as a coach for the Chargers prior to the start of the season, but the not-technically-retired quarterback has made it pretty clear that was not the case.
The first day of 2025 will mark the eighth anniversary of the last time Colin Kaepernick played in an NFL game, as the QB opted to explore free agency following the conclusion of the 2016 campaign and was unable to find a team willing to sign the man who went 1-10 as a starter during his final season with the San Francisco 49ers.
Plenty of people would tell you Kaepernick’s lackluster play was the primary reason he wasn’t able to find another home in the NFL, but it’s obviously impossible to talk about the situation without discussing the backlash to his decision to start kneeling during the national anthem that season to call attention to police brutality—a protest he’s asserted led to him being blackballed from the league.
Kaepernick has made it clear he thinks he still has what it takes to play in the NFL while staging a number of ill-fated comeback attempts, but at this point, it’s very hard to imagine there’s any team that’s going to take a chance on a 37-year-old QB who hasn’t seen any action in close to a decade.
There’s no denying Kaepernick was not the player he was when he led the 49ers to the Super Bowl by the time he played his last NFL game, but the man who spent six years in the league did show he knows a thing or two about what it takes to be a successful quarterback before falling off.
As a result, it made sense that Jim Harbaugh (who became the head coach of the 49ers the same year Kaepernick was drafted in 2011) thought he could be an asset as a coach for the Chargers.
In August, Harbaugh spoke with USA Today and seemed to imply he’d extended an offer to Kaepernick to coach in some capacity, saying:
“We talked a little bit about it. He’s considering it. He was out of the country. He said he was going to get back to me. We haven’t reconnected since then. That was early, early in the year.”
Kaepernick was asked about that supposed opportunity during an interview with Jimmy Fallon earlier this week and disputed the notion he ever received a coaching offer from Harbaugh and the Chargers (or any team for that matter) while suggesting he probably would have turned it down if he had, saying:
“I found out the same way everyone else did: on social media. I was like, ‘Oh, I got a coaching offer.’ No. No coaching offer.
“No interest in coaching. I need the adrenaline rush of playing and being in it. I think I can have more impact in other places with my time.”
Based on what Harbaugh had to say in the aforementioned interview, it doesn’t seem like the talks got to a point where Kaepernick was presented with a contract he ultimately declined to sign, but the fact that he said “He’s considering it” sure makes it sounds like the ball was in the QB’s court.