Sadly, Colin Kaepernick still hasn’t been added to a roster in the NFL despite there being at least a dozen quarterbacks he’s better than who already have. Many fans and onlookers, myself included, suspect it’s because NFL owners have collectively decided to blacklist him due to his protest of the National Anthem to highlight social injustice. So what’s next? Well, former NFL quarterback Michael Vick has a controversial suggestion for Kaep – cut his hair. 

“First thing we gotta get Colin to do is cut his hair,” Vick said Monday on FS1’s “Speak For Yourself.”

That’s it, Mike. The only thing standing in Kaep’s way is his hair scaring people away.

“Listen, I’m not up here to try to be politically correct. Even if he puts cornrows in there. I don’t think he should represent himself in that way in terms of just the hairstyle,” Vick said. “Just go clean-cut. You know, why not? You’re already dealing with a lot of controversy surrounding this issue. The most important thing that he needs to do is just try to be presentable.”

“I just think perception and image is everything, and listen, it’s not the Colin Kaepernick that we’ve known since he entered the National Football League. And I’m just going off my personal experiences, but I love the guy to death and I want him also to succeed on and off the field. And this has to be a start for him.”

Now, for added context, Michael Vick did admit that he’s speaking based off his own personal experiences. In case you forgot what those experiences are, they include him being arrested for financing a dog fighting rind and serving 18 months in federal prison. Vick, who was an incredible player and idolized by many – quite possibly Kaepernick himself – was maligned by much of the public for his actions. He absolutely needed to change the overwhelmingly negative perception of him if he were to move on with his life. But here’s a very important detail he’s leaving out.

COLIN KAEPERNICK DID NOTHING WRONG/ILLEGAL.

Vick’s comments come on page 2 of the “Respectability Politics 101” textbook – page 1 is reserved for “pull up your pants” logic. He’s basically telling Kaepernick that he needs to change his physical appearance to somehow convince people he’s more of a professional than he’s shown himself to be.

Kaepernick is clearly bothered by the criticism as well as he made a post about Stockholm syndrome on Twitter later that day.

Well, not clearly. But it doesn’t take that large of a jump to connect the two. Unless Kaep was sharing his thoughts on the current R. Kelly fiasco.

To perfectly explain exactly what’s wrong with Vick’s comments, Fox Sports 1’s Shannon Sharpe broke them down on his own show, Undisputed. Sharpe’s actually gone to bat for Kaep on multiple accounts now, with this being the most recent.