The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

National Football League fans nearly panicked Sunday afternoon when news broke that Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers had suffered a broken collarbone and will probably be lost for the remainder of the season.

Within a minute after news of the incident was revealed during the Sunday football games, speculation began of who would replace him.

And the first name that was blurted out was that of Colin Kaepernick, who has been eagerly awaiting a call for one of the 32 NFL teams since early July. Even the name of Tony Romo—who presently is an analyst for CBS—was mentioned along with Robert Griffin III.

Kaepernick seemed to be a unanimous choice of the sport networks because he still was good enough to play in the NFL when he opted out of his contract in March and asked for his release last year from the San Francisco 49ers. He remains a free agent despite a rash of injuries and poor play at the quarterback position of several NFL franchises.

Ironically, at the same time Sunday, Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL utilizing the collective bargaining agreement and not the union (NFLPA) alleging that he remains unsigned as a result of “collusion by the owners following his protests during the national anthem,” according to the Associated Press in Monday’s editions.

Last season when he decided to sit and then kneel during the anthem to bring attention to the mistreatment of African-Americans by police, it brought an angry response from President Donald Trump among others, especially NFL fans.

Since then Kaepernick has gotten many allies from various NFL teams who refuse to stand during the anthem before every game.

Monday’s sports talk shows on ESPN discussed the situation with most of the arguments stating that Kaepernick doesn’t have a case because, although most of the owners disagree with his actions, they did not get together to discuss it.

“You only need two owners talking together about the situation to have collusion,” commented Max Kellerman on ESPN’s First Take show Monday morning, “Kaepernick’s lawyers just need some kind of proof like and e-mail or a text.”

“The owners would be idiotic to document this,” his ESPN partner Stephen A. Smith added. “And the advertisers and sponsors have threatened to walk.”

But not standing for the anthem is only one incident that keeps owners from wanting Kaepernick on their team.

The Miami Dolphins, who were looking for a quarterback before the season began, turned away from Kaepernick after he was seen wearing a Fidel Castro T-shirt. Nearly 35 per cent of the Miami population is Cuban.

Another incident involved Kaepernick’s girl friend who compared Baltimore Ravens’ owner Steve Biscotti and former star Ray Lewis to the slave owner in the movie “D’jango Unchained” after Biscotti nixed the front office and head coach who wanted to sign Kaepernick in July because he said “the hiring would be counter-productive for my business.”

Another “business” that wants some conclusion to the anthem problem is the NFL

itself. Commissioner Roger Goodell told club executives last week in a memo that the anthem issue is dividing the league from its fans. He said the NFL “needs to move past the controversy.”

It appears that the networks featuring NFL games are getting fed up with the situation, too, because neither Fox nor ESPN televised the national anthem before the games they aired Sunday.

That must have really hacked off those players who chose not to stand during the anthem!!!

KWICKIES…There must be someone in charge of the weekly Southeast Texas Football Poll who is either from Newton or just doesn’t even know how to spell football. This week’s poll has Newton as the No. 1 team and West Orange-Stark No. 2. Even if the two teams end up as state champions this year, there’s no way Newton is a better team than the Mustangs, whose 32 straight victories is the longest winning streak in the ENTIRE huge state of Texas.

Kenny Ruane did something last weekend that most golfers just dream of doing—he shot 37-37—74 which is two strokes better than his age of 76. Witnessing the event at Sunset Grove Country Club were Craig Couvillion, Bob Hoepner and yours truly.

The Houston Texans proved Sunday afternoon that a team can look real good beating a football team that is REALLY bad. The Texans looked great in every phase of the game defeating the winless Cleveland Browns 33-17 at NRG Stadium in Houston.

And while on the subject of the Texans’ victory over Cleveland, Deshaun Watson became the first rookie quarterback in the Super Bowl era to throw at least three touchdown passes in three consecutive games.

Upsets involving several of last week’s Associated Press’ Top 25 College Football Poll has jumbled up this week’s poll.

Losses by Clemson, Washington, Washington State and Auburn caused the changes.

Alabama retained its top spot in this week’s poll, Penn State moved up one spot to No. 2, Georgia came up one to No. 3, TCU and Wisconsin each jumped up two places to No. 4 and No. 5, respectively.

Ohio State came up three slots to No. 6, Clemson sank five places to No. 7, Miami and Oklahoma moved up three spots to No. 8 and No. 9, respectively, and Oklahoma State came up four places to No. 10.

Washington dropped from fifth place to No. 12 while Washington State sunk to No. 15 from No. 8 and Auburn plummeted from No. 10 to No. 21.

Three new teams to this week’s polls include West Virginia (23) LSU (24) and Memphis (25).

JUST BETWEEN US…The Houston Astros provided their fans with two of the most exciting playoff games than we’ve seen in a long time, beating those dreaded New York Yankees twice by 2-1 scores. These two victories moved the Astros halfway to the World Series as the playoff moved to Yankee Stadium for the next three games if necessary. On the other side of the coin, the Astros could very well have earned a berth in the World Series by the time this Korner hits the streets.