SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- While quarterback Colin Kaepernick is no longer a member of the San Francisco 49ers, linebacker Eli Harold has made it a point to keep in touch with him.
Harold, who joined Kaepernick and safety Eric Reid in kneeling during the national anthem as a protest of racial inequality last season, told ESPN on Wednesday that he's disappointed that Kaepernick has not yet found a new team.
"It's frustrating," Harold said. "It's frustrating for me because I really think it has everything to do with the protest that he did. Some general managers and owners are scared to touch him simply because they're scared to lose revenue, money. We all know he's better than some of these guys that went in free agency but that's neither here nor there. He'll be signed by training camp, by the time training camp starts. But it's frustrating.
"I really feel like the world took a step forward in seeing the protest, but it shows you that we really, honestly, in the NFL, in the football realm, in the professional world, we didn't take a step forward because he's still not employed. I feel like it's bigger than what he did, it's bigger than football. ... He's a good quarterback. You go back and look at the numbers; he had a pretty good season for the games he played. So he'll be signed."
Since Kaepernick opted out of his contract in March, Harold said he had spoken with him a number of times. In those conversations, Harold said Kaepernick had not expressed doubt or anger about not signing yet.
In fact, Harold says the reason he's so confident Kaepernick will eventually sign somewhere is because Kaepernick has remained confident it will happen.
"His spirits are very high," Harold said. "We talked. I told him good luck with everything. That's when he told me he will be signed. So I said, 'Yeah, I have faith in you. You proved yourself last year.'
"I feel like a lot of guys that would have been in his shoes last year, not having the [starting] job on day one and then just thrown in there when we were getting blown out, a lot of guys would have reacted negatively to that. He stayed positive about the whole situation. I mean, getting hate mail, getting death threats, I mean he showed some true courage. He never broke. So what more can you ask for in a guy? He's shown he can thrive under high, high, high pressure. That's the most scrutiny I guarantee you any quarterback has ever faced."
ESPN's Adam Schefter reported earlier this offseason that Kaepernick will stand for the national anthem this season, assuming he's with a team. Reid and Harold plan to follow suit.
According to Harold, that was a topic that came up in those conversations with Kaepernick and Reid, and the three of them agreed that their decision to kneel had sparked the conversation how they hoped.
"The main thing about Colin taking the knee, it was to bring a conversation about the issues that were going on in the world and are still going on today," Harold said. "I will stand up. We accomplished our goal to create a conversation and a lot of people have been helped, a lot of things have changed. Like he's said and Eric has said, it's not going to change in a day. Maybe it will take five, 10 years, but I feel like as long as you are taking a step forward I feel like that's all you can ask for.
"I respect Colin's decision to stand up and I'm following him."
Late last season, Harold said he had received mostly negative reaction on social media and elsewhere to the protest. But he said Wednesday he has spent part of this offseason connecting with people who can help the cause and spread the message.
When the Niners break from their offseason program in mid-June, Harold intends to go back to his hometown of Virginia Beach, Virginia, and have a camp with Seattle Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor. That camp will have some tweaks from previous years but will include local police and incorporate elements of Kaepernick's "Know Your Rights" camps.
"It was crazy because the camp that I had last year with me and Kam Chancellor, we had a seminar incorporated in camp with the local police and this was way before I knew that Colin would take the knee," Harold said. "It was kind of crazy the way it played out and we are going to incorporate that again into camp and kind of having something like Colin did with 'Know Your Rights' and incorporate that in there. I don't want to steal his name but come up with our own thing and get the ball rolling in our community. I feel like if you are going to start somewhere, you've got to start in your community."