Even when 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is minding his own business, he's getting criticized.
In a conversation about embattled Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel, Cowboys Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith talked about how important it is for a quarterback's success to have his teammates trust him.
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"If he's going to be your starting quarterback and you're going to pay him a ton of money and he's acting like that? Come on. I don't know how you can develop your trust," Smith said, according to ESPN. "The quarterback is the face of your organization, pretty much. As the spokesman for your whole entire organization, players have to trust that this guy is going to do what he needs to do on the football field to be successful.
"Players have to trust he's going to work out hard. Players have to trust this guy is studying the game. If he's not showing himself as a student of the game or a true leader, then I can't respect an appointed leader just because he's a quarterback. But if he has done all of that, then he's earned the right to be my leader."
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All valid statements, but then the "Dancing With The Stars" champion turned his criticism on Kaepernick, whose future with San Francisco is uncertain.
"Leadership is not given to you. You have to absolutely earn it," Smith said. "People have to see you're willing to work out with them and interact with them. You can't be Colin Kaepernick walking around with your headphones on all of the time and not talking to nobody."
Smith wasn't the only one with a less-than-flattering comment about Kap. Two-time NFL MVP Kurt Warner worked with Kaepernick last offseason to improve his pocket-passing presence and hinted that his pupil still has some catching up to do.
"I think guys like Colin, RGIII (Robert Griffin III), Johnny Manziel, when it comes to the football side of things I believe they're at an unfair disadvantage when they come into the league, because nobody has ever really taught them how to play the quarterback position," Warner told KNBR Radio in San Francisco, "how to drop back and read coverages and go through that from the pocket because they're great athletes. And they've survived on being great athletes for such a long time that they've never learned the nuances of the position.
"So now, they get into the league and Colin had great success early, and we throw a big contract at him. And then all of a sudden, we expect him to become and morph into something that we want that he's never really been taught to be."
Warner was asked about trust issues between Kap and the 49ers, and the Hall of Famer said they could be repaired, but "there are times where players come to a point in their career where they need a new start."
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