Barber: Is Colin Kaepernick's activism or his play to blame for his unemployment?

Let's begin today's session with a mental exercise. Gaze at this picture of Colin Kaepernick and tell me what you see.

Traitor? Hero? Fool? Role model? Publicity hound? Quiet pillar of strength? Potential Super Bowl quarterback? NFL washout-in-progress?

Kaepernick has ceased to be a football player, or even a civil rights activist. He is now a human Rorschach Test. Look at him and you will find whatever you're looking for.

And believe me, he isn't hard to locate.

Kaepernick continues to dominate the news cycle of the NFL offseason, even though he isn't currently a member of the league. Last Friday, three of the 10 “most commented” stories on ProFootballTalk.com, the electronic water cooler of the sport, involved the former 49ers quarterback. No. 2 was “Kaepernick has received zero inquiries,” No. 7 was “Colin Kaepernick speaks (to Shannon Sharpe)” and No. 9 was “Leak of Seahawks' sudden interest in Kaepernick sparks some cynicism.”

The only surprise was that we got to Monday without “Pro- and anti-Kaepernick factions battle in streets of Seattle” having made the list.

It doesn't shock me that Kaepernick's politics have proved so divisive. He is a symptom of our time. People (and I'll raise my hand here) who get information from, say, the New York Times and the Washington Post don't merely disagree with those who rely on Fox News and Breitbart. We live in parallel universes that bear little resemblance to one another. We hardly understand one another's language.

So it would make sense that when Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem last fall, there were two utterly separate reactions.

Some of us saw a young man prone to mistakes (the Fidel shirt was not great), but ultimately willing to risk his merchandise sales, and maybe even his career, for a cause he found important - the violence inflicted upon African-Americans by their nation's law enforcement officers. Others looked at the same No. 7 perched on one knee and saw disrespect for America's embattled institutions.

It has been even more uncomfortable witnessing the response to Kaepernick's charitable work the past few months. In October he pledged to donate $1 million to nonprofit organizations. As of April he had distributed $600,000 to groups as eclectic as Meals on Wheels, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Silence Is Violence, a campaign for peace in New Orleans.

Kap's detractors are dismissive of his donations, or even suspicious of whether he has actually made them. (He has.) This disregard is sad but, again, not entirely surprising given the current political environment.

Here's what is harder to reason. The Kaepernick Rorschach Test isn't limited to his politics. It somehow extends to his football.

If you are at all familiar with sports Twitter, or get a lot of NFL chatter in your Facebook timeline, you know what I'm talking about. The scouting report on Kaepernick the quarterback seems to be two stacks of reports, on two entirely different players.

On one hand are legions of disgruntled NFL fans, and a few outspoken media critics like Jason Whitlock and Tony Dungy, who are convinced Kaepernick is a terrible quarterback and unemployed on merit. They'll tell you he can't pass from the pocket, that he is incapable of checking down to a secondary receiver, that he flees at the slightest hint of pressure.

And some go further, deducing that Kaepernick doesn't work hard and must not care about the game. How else could such a commanding physical presence fail as a quarterback?

On the other side of the social gulf is a sizable group of sports journalists who insist this is all a smokescreen. They note Kaepernick's numbers in 2016 - 16 touchdowns, four interceptions and a 90.7 passer rating while toiling for a 2-14 team - and argue that he is, in fact, very good at his work. A Super Bowl quarterback just over four years ago, and a player with potential to get there again.

We have our opinions here in the Bay Area, but a lot of us have followed this raging debate with amusement. The two sides of the gulf have slotted Kaepernick, the player, at one extreme or the other to fit their ideas of justice and propriety. In reality, he falls pretty close to the median.

I mean, of course Kaepernick should have a job right now. Of course he is better than many of the QBs who have landed spots this offseason - “certified pre-owned” backups like Geno Smith (Giants), Matt Barkley (49ers) and E.J. Manuel (Raiders). Hell, even Blaine Gabbert, who was clearly inferior to Kaepernick in the same system last year, found a home in Arizona.

And of course Kaepernick's unemployment has everything to do with his outspoken political stands. NFL owners and general managers might not be scheming against him in one giant group text.

But they are, on the whole, a deeply conservative bunch that wants no part of a defiant young black man willing to make use of his athlete's soapbox.

Here's the thing, though. I watched the vast majority of Kaepernick's snaps last year, and there is no way I can call him a good quarterback. He has made strides in reading defenses, but he remains inconsistent in his decision-making. He lacks pocket awareness. And strangest of all - considering his size and athletic ability - he's not all that hard to sack.

Kaepernick's numbers were good last year, but they were misleading. In the first halves of games he completed 72.5 percent of his passes, had 11 touchdown passes to three interceptions, and notched a passer rating of 115.5. That's Pro Bowl material. In second halves his completion rate dropped to 48 percent, his rating to 70.3. Those marks will get you fired.

And it wasn't a fluke. In 2014, when Kaepernick and the 49ers were a Richard Sherman batted ball away from a return trip to the Super Bowl, his first halves looked like this: 62.3 completion percentage, 2,030 yards, 14 touchdowns, four interceptions, 100.4 passer rating. His second halves: 58.5 completion rate, 1,334 yards, five touchdowns, six interceptions, 71.5 passer rating.

These statistics are an indictment of the 49ers' coaching staffs of the past few years. They also highlight the fact that NFL defenses adjust to Kaepernick better than he adjusts to them.

I hate that Kaepernick has been demonized for expressing his beliefs. I also don't think it's particularly helpful to anoint him as a great quarterback just because you honor what he's saying.

But hey, I'm just another guy looking at ink blots.

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.