Santa Clara, CA – Defiant, and determined to be a conduit for U.S. change, Colin Kaepernick plans to sit through the national anthem for as long as he feels is appropriate and until he sees significant progress in America — specifically when it comes to race relations.
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He knows he could be cut by San Francisco for this stand. Criticized, ostracized, and he’ll go it all alone if need be.
The quarterback realizes he might be treated poorly in some road cities, and he’s ready for that, too, saying he’s not overly concerned about his safety, but “if something happens that’s only proving my point.”
“I’m going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed,” Kaepernick said Sunday at his locker. “To me this is something that has to change. When there’s significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it’s supposed to represent, this country is representing people the way that it’s supposed to, I’ll stand.”
Two days after he refused to stand for the “The Star Spangled Banner” before the 49ers’ preseason loss to the Packers, Kaepernick insists whatever the consequences, he will know “I did what’s right.” He said he hasn’t heard from the NFL or anyone else about his actions — and it won’t matter if he does.
“No one’s tried to quiet me and, to be honest, it’s not something I’m going to be quiet about,” he said. “I’m going to speak the truth when I’m asked about it. This isn’t for look. This isn’t for publicity or anything like that. This is for people that don’t have the voice. And this is for people that are being oppressed and need to have equal opportunities to be successful. To provide for families and not live in poor circumstances.”
Letting his hair go au natural and sprinting between drills as usual, Kaepernick took the field Sunday with the 49ers as his stance drew chatter across NFL camps.
He explained his viewpoints to teammates in the morning, some agreeing with his message but not necessarily his method. Some said they know he has offended his countrymen, others didn’t even know what he had done.
“Every guy on this team is entitled to their opinion. We’re all grown men,” linebacker NaVorro Bowman said.
“I agree with what he did, but not in the way he did it,” wideout Torrey Smith said. “That’s not for me. He has that right. Soldiers have died for his right to do exactly what he did. … I know he’s taken a lot of heat for it. He understands that when you do something like that it does offend a lot of people.”
Both Bowman and Smith are African American.
Kaepernick criticized presidential candidates Donald Trump (“openly racist”) and Hillary Clinton;” called out police brutality against minorities; and pushed for accountability of public officials.
“You can become a cop in six months and don’t have to have the same amount of training as a cosmetologist,” Kaepernick said. “That’s insane. Someone that’s holding a curling iron has more education and more training than people that have a gun and are going out on the street to protect us.”
In college at Nevada, Kaepernick said, police were called one day “because we were the only black people in that neighborhood.” Officers entered without knocking and drew guns on him and his teammates and roommates as they were moving their belongings, he said.
He said his stand is not against men and women in the military fighting and losing their lives for Americans’ rights and freedoms.
Kaepernick, whose hair had been in cornrows during training camp, sat on the bench during Friday’s national anthem at Levi’s Stadium. Giants wideout Victor Cruz and Bills coach Rex Ryan said standing for the anthem shows respect.
“There’s a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality,” said Kaepernick, whose adoptive parents are Caucasian. “There’s people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable. People are being given paid leave for killing people. That’s not right. That’s not right by anyone’s standards.”
On Sunday, he stopped briefly on a side field to talk with Dr. Harry Edwards and they shared a quick embrace before the quarterback grabbed his helmet and took the field. Edwards is a sociologist and African-American activist who helped plan the “Olympic Project for Human Rights” before the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where U.S. sprinters and medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos bowed their heads through the anthem on the medal podium in their black power protest.
After swirling trade talks all offseason following Kaepernick’s three surgeries and sub-par 2015 season, he has done everything so far but play good football — and he doesn’t plan for this to be a distraction.
Coach Chip Kelly did not speak to the media Sunday. He said Saturday he still hasn’t decided on his starting quarterback in a competition between Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert, who took over the job from Kaepernick last November and has vowed to be the No. 1 again.
Kaepernick hasn’t stood for the anthem in any of the team’s three preseason games “and I don’t see it as going about it the wrong way.”
“That’s his right as a citizen,” Kelly said. “We recognize his right as an individual to choose to participate or not participate in the national anthem.”
Now, Kaepernick is prepared for whatever comes next.
“I think there’s a lot of consequences that come along with this. There’s a lot of people that don’t want to have this conversation,” he said. “They’re scared they might lose their job. Or they might not get the endorsements. They might not to be treated the same way. Those are things I’m prepared to handle. …
“At this point, I’ve been blessed to be able to get this far and have the privilege of being able to be in the NFL, making the kind of money I make and enjoy luxuries like that. I can’t look in the mirror and see people dying on the street that should have the same opportunities that I’ve had.”
He will be sitting through the games as well. 3rd string quarterback.
We have to be taught by a person like him? huhh. let him go to school to learn how to behave. He has no manners at all and he’ll show us how to behave.
I used to like him. He had a unique set of skills and was great to watch. However, the NFL has figured him out and now he is an irrelevant 2nd stringer. This stunt is a pathetic way to get back into the limelight. If some team offered him a starting position he would shut up and stand up.
Fire his ingrate ungrateful a$$ !! DMD
Young people do silly things.
The guy is a joke and an attention seeker. He was fined by the NFL, many times for violating their policies. He had one good season with a great headcoach, went to the superbowl lost and he acted like he’s the greatest player of all time. There’s absolutely nothing to learn from this used to be farshtinkana baal gaiva.
I always proclaimed that one of the greatest demonstrations of freedom that can be shown in our country is burning the US flag. So, too, with sitting for the national anthem.
Take away his uniform and his number! He should be fired!!
The National Anthem should really be “G-d Bless America”, which was written by Irving Berlin. The only reason that Congress did not designate the latter song as the national anthem, is because it was written by a Jewish immigrant nearly 100 years ago. At that time, it was not considered “American” to have a national anthem written by a Jewish immigrant, Irving Berlin.
There aren’t any perfect countries. Let him first give us a list of better countries
If Kapernick wants to make things better, let he and his fellow multi millionaire athletes spend money on adopting, patronizing and donating to inner city youth instead of expensive cars, houses, jewelry and drugs.
Of course no mention by the media that he recently converted to Islam and is engaged to a BLM member. This bum has probably made tens of millions of dollars yet given little to none to charity.
Oh lets not forget he was abandoned by his black parents and raised by white folks. Or that he was accused of raping 3 women when he was in college.
Great upstanding citizen he is.
It wasn’t the smartest thing for him to do, but it does highlight the damage Obama caused to the Black psyche, especially to a millionaire who has it better than 99% of the people irrespective of race.
Of course there are things that need to be improved, but in truth, the Blacks have it better in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately, because of some “leaders” like Sharpton and Jackson, with significant help from political opportunists, Blacks can not appreciate things even when they are good.
Many Blacks have also pointed out that much of the problems with police is due to how Blacks themselves respond when they are stopped.
I had a Black next door neighbor, very decent ,middle class, stable family. Yet, when their kids were acting up, they would say to them, “If you don’t behave, the police will come and get you.” This is as opposed to us telling out kids that if they are ever in trouble, find a policemen for help.
Most of the problems is attitude.
If he doesn’t like it here, he should move to an African country. See how much money he makes there.
There is a parallel, as painful as it is to recognize it, between the glorification that we in the frum community have for our leaders, and the hero worship in the secular, goyishe world of the celebrities, whether Hollywood or sports. Inasmuch as this traitor is a sports figure that is idolized, it becomes a moral responsibility of the sports team to dismiss him, without severance pay, or with any honors.
Uh, most frum do not say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing the National Anthem or celebrate American holidays like Thanksgiving. So what’s the kvetching about? That Kap is a black exercising his Constitutional rights?