KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Whatever hard feelings safety Eric Berry might have had over his inability to secure a long-term contract from the Kansas City Chiefs dissipated Sunday as he walked through the doors of the team’s practice facility.
“I know it’s a societal issue, but I don’t feel like it’s my place to comment,” Fisher said during Sunday’s availability. “I think our respect for the national anthem has been very, very well-documented, and we’re going to continue to have respect for the national anthem.”
Kaepernick sat during the national anthem for the 49ers’ first three preseason games, and addressed his reasoning with the media on Sunday. The sixth-year pro cited police brutality as a central theme and said he will not stand for the anthem until “there’s significant change, and I feel like that flag represents what it’s supposed to represent.”
Fisher said he would be “very, very surprised” if any of his players mimicked Kaepernick.
“I’m not being critical of ‘Kap,'” Fisher added. “He has every right to do that, but we have an organizational philosophy that has been in place for a long time with respect to the anthem. I think it’s a special event, and it’s something that should be respected, and that’s my opinion.”
The Panthers did not indicate what would happen to Scifres, who attended Monday’s practice but did not work out. An injury settlement is a possibility with four more moves needed to reduce the roster to 75 by 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
“I thought that was pathetic from him,” Isner responded. “The cause he was going for, fine by me — but don’t do it in that fashion. He could have found some other ways to present his voice there.”
A seventh-round pick in 2015, with a year-long apprenticeship under Peyton Manning to go with all of one December kneel-down, will succeed Manning as the Broncos’ quarterback.
There will be plenty of raised eyebrows and more than a few online journeys with Siemian’s name typed into the search engine to figure where he came from and how, exactly, he got to this point. The bottom line is he won the job and won it cleanly.
Kubiak consistently said he was looking “at a body of work’’ to decide on Siemian, Lynch or Sanchez. It wouldn’t be just one practice, one game, one week or even one month that determined the winner. It would be all of it.
It would be knowledge of the playbook, performance on the practice field, command in the huddle, the ability to keep calm in tight situations and Kubiak also even lumped in “the gut feel.’’ Siemian checked the boxes.
While many will question it, just think, for a moment, about who made the decision. A Hall of Fame quarterback calls the football shots for the Broncos in John Elway, and Kubiak played quarterback in the NFL for nine seasons and has invested roughly three decades of his life coaching quarterbacks.
They picked Siemian because of his power arm and level head. They picked Siemian because he played better and handled the competition better. If there has been a quiet criticism of Siemian, it has been that the team wanted to see a little more fire at times.
Siemian crossed that bridge, too, in recent weeks. Kubiak has consistently praised how Siemian managed the team in practice and in games. Kubiak has often said “he’s been around good players and Trevor knows how to handle himself.’’
His teammates have seen it all along: Siemian had an unshakable confidence that he could win the job, even as most believed it bordered on unthinkable.