Stephen A Smith has a long history of bold statements on former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, but now he is ready for the conversation around him as an athlete to end.

In a monologue on the Wednesday edition of The Stephen A. Smith Show discussing comments from Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh that he could bring Kaepernick on as a coach, Smith explained why it’s time to stop entertaining the idea that the 36-year-old Kaepernick could return to the league he has not played in since 2016.

“If he wants to bring Colin Kaepernick there, cool. No problem. I think Colin Kaepernick would be a good coach. I think that Colin Kaepernick, if he wants the opportunity, should be the coach,” Smith said. “What I would say however is I don’t want to hear **** about him being a quarterback. That ship should have sailed. Not only has it sailed, it should have sailed. I know some people don’t want to say it, I will.”

Kaepernick recently told Sky Sports he believes he still “can help a team win a championship,” which led to another news cycle around the former San Francisco 49ers QB.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk and NBC Sports wrote a column emphasizing NFL owners did in fact blackball Kaepernick after he was cut in 2016, but that Kaepernick “comes off as delusional by thinking at this point that there’s even a chance.”

Smith appeared to agree on his show Wednesday.

“Obviously taking a knee, bringing attention to police brutality and the uncivilized manner in which Black folks, minorities in this country have been treated by police officers and the like,” Smith said. “He was blackballed. He was ostracized. We know this. Nobody’s running from that. It’s absolutely true, and the NFL owners should be ashamed of themselves. Make no mistake about it. But it’s been eight years … and if we’re going to talk about Colin Kaepernick, we need to talk about him honestly.”

Smith has consistently called out the NFL for its handling of Kaepernick, who became the most prominent athlete to kneel during the national anthem in protest of racial violence in 2016. But Smith himself received backlash when he accused Kaepernick of attention-grabbing over his handling of a messy 2019 workout in Atlanta.

Now, Smith is ready to put the whole conversation to bed and move on to Kaepernick either coaching or moving on from football — but not playing quarterback professionally again.

[The Stephen A. Smith Show on YouTube]