Over the last football season, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick suddenly became a household name after he refused to stand for the National Anthem in protest of what he sees as oppression of blacks in the U.S. He took a knee during the anthem, and was joined by a few other players.
His protest was the subject of no shortage of debate, and it seemed like everyone and their mother had an opinion on it (including Kaepernick’s own, who ironically opposed it). People overwhelmingly opposed the protest, with a Reuters poll showing that 72 percent of Americans said that they thought Kaepernick’s behavior was unpatriotic. His protests “coincidentally” coincided with an 8 percent decline in the NFL’s ratings.
The protest would end up being short lived. Kaepernick recently announced that he won’t be continuing his protest into the next season. Despite that, his protest may come back to haunt him… and cost him a lot of money.
This news came right on the heels of news that the quarterback, who has been with the San Francisco 49ers since he was drafted in 2011, would enter free agency for the first time in his career.
And the timing of that news was not lost on some NFL officials.
According to Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman, more than a few NFL officials at the NFL scouting combine could be described as extreme skeptics.
According to an earlier report from Freeman, Kaepernick made a lot of NFL executives furious when he began kneeling for the national anthem in the 2016 NFL preseason.
“I don’t want him anywhere near my team,” one front office executive told Freeman. “He’s a traitor.”
“He has no respect for our country,” another team executive said.
“In my career, I have never seen a guy so hated by front office guys as Kaepernick,” declared one general manager.
H/T: The Wild Card
All those quotes of frustration with Kaepernick are from 2016, and those feelings probably haven’t changed since then. It’s not like anyone was expecting his protest to go on for an eternity, so him cutting the protest short is hardly a damage control measure. An executive was quoted as calling him an “embarrassment to football.”
Any team that picks Kaepernick up is going to have to answer why, and it seems like no one is ready for that headache just yet.
It just goes to show you that, when it’s time to honor America, stand up and be a man.
In other words, don’t be this guy:
What do you think? Is Kaepernick getting what he deserves, or are people overreacting?
