Imrem: Sanchez over Kaepernick? One can only wonder

In the NFL's game of quarterback roulette, Mark Sanchez has a job and Colin Kaepernick doesn't.

This development, among others, prompted some to invoke the "B" word, as in the NFL is blacklisting Kaepernick.

Suspicions intensified when the Chicago Bears signed the dubious Sanchez as a backup over the equally dubious Kaepernick.

NFL teams can point to Kaepernick's declining play the past couple of years, his unconventional style of play and the controversy he brought upon himself.

But this is a league where an average quarterback could be a felon on work release from federal prison and still be signed by some team.

Kaepernick's sin is choosing not to stand during "The Star Spangled Banner" last season.

One interpretation is that Kaepernick hates law enforcement, the U.S. Armed Forces and the American flag.

So, is their relative appeal as uncomplicated as Kaepernick didn't honor the anthem and Sanchez did?

I doubt the "B" charge but can see why some would subscribe to it.

Look, I'll say it out loud: If Kaepernick is good enough to play in the NFL, a team should give him a job regardless of his social activism. The football bar shouldn't be any higher for him than it is for, say, Sanchez.

In signing Sanchez, the Bears became a punch line on social media with him almost being portrayed as the Gilbert Gottfried of football … curiously entertaining for a while but now, well, not so much.

This is wrong because Sanchez is a real NFL quarterback as long as somebody will pay him to play the position.

Yes, even if that team is the QB-confused Bears.

The question is whether Kaepernick is not a real NFL quarterback as long as nobody will pay him to play the position.

The Kaepernick issue inspired comments from the likes of Donald Trump, Jim Harbaugh and Spike Lee.

Harbaugh, the only one who knows much about quarterbacking, endorsed Kaepernick. If he's right, why did the Bears prefer Sanchez? Was it fear of public backlash in a city where their stadium is Soldier Field?

This isn't a local issue, however. Kaepernick is radioactive around the NFL for being perceived as unpatriotic in a league that markets itself as all-American.

Kaepernick vowed to end his gameday protest against social injustice and inequality. Still, nobody wants him. Not yet, anyway, which prompted the "B" allegations.

Each of the 32 owners rejecting Kaepernick would be understandable. All of them conspiring as a bloc to reject him wouldn't be.

It's difficult to believe that not a single owner is desperate enough at quarterback to give Kaepernick a chance by now.

Not even Jerry Jones, who has acquired some really shady characters in Dallas.

The Bears kept the frustrating Jay Cutler for eight years and then replaced him this month with the pedestrian Mike Glennon. The Jets, perpetually struggling at quarterback, just signed the perpetually ordinary Josh McCown.

Interesting now will be whether Cutler and other flawed free-agent QBs find work before Kaepernick does.

The question is, did the Bears' own social standards prompt them to choose Sanchez over Kaepernick, or was it actually a football decision, or was the "B" word really at play?

The answer depends on whom you follow on social media.

mimrem@dailyherald.com