COLIN KAEPERNICK — -A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE???
Certainly won’t be a Presidential Medal of Honor.
Of any sort or designation.
Not with the current president.
I betcha Colin Kaepernick didn’t set out to become an American activist.
How much you wanna bet?
A gifted athlete with a conscience, unafraid to advocate for what he thinks is right, he might tell you that it just worked out that way.
In a very big way.
Bigger than either he or anyone else could ever imagine.
Lindsay Gibbs of ThinkProgress tracked the “Kaepernick Effect” in September of 2017.
In the 13 months prior, she found evidence of more than 3,500 people taking the initiative to join Kaepernick’s movement.
ThinkProgress tracked more than 200 protests staged during the playing of the national anthem at sporting events in 41 states (including Washington, D.C.) and four countries. Fifty colleges and 68 high schools had witnessed some type of protest activity on their fields of play.
And that was then.
In 2017.
Selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the second round (36th overall) of the 2011 NFL Draft out of Nevada, where he was the 2x WAC Offensive Player of the Year (2008, 2010), Kaepernick had a cannon arm and great feet.
He could sling it and he could run.
In fact, he set NFL records for most rushing yards by a quarterback in a single game (181 yards); and most rushing yards by a quarterback in a single postseason (264 yards).
At Nevada he became the only player in NCAA Division I FBS history to amass 10,000 passing yards and 4,000 rushing yards in a career.
And by the middle of the 2012 season his dual threat exploits were being showcased on the NFL gridiron.
Backing up Alex Smith, Kaepernick stepped in after Smith suffered a concussion and led the Niners to their first Super Bowl appearance since 1994.
[In Super Bowl XLVII, Baltimore defeated SF 34–31, handing the 49ers their first Super Bowl loss in franchise history. Kaepernick completed 16 of 28 passes for 302 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 62 yards and another score but threw 1 interception. His 62 yards rushing was the second-highest total by a QB in the Super Bowl, just behind Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair’s record of 64 in Super Bowl XXXIV. He did however, set a Super Bowl record for the longest rushing touchdown by a quarterback, with his 15-yard TD jaunt in the fourth quarter].
During the 2013 season, his first full campaign as the starter, Kaepernick helped the 49ers reach the NFC Championship Game.
Over the next three seasons he lost and won back his starting job but the Niners missed the playoffs each year.
So it was that in the 49ers’ third preseason game of 2016, Kaepernick elected to sit during the playing of the national anthem, as a protest against racial injustice, police brutality and systemic oppression in the country.
The following week and throughout the regular season, he kneeled during the anthem. His protests engendered polarization to the nth degree; some praised him and his stand against racism and police brutality and others roundly, soundly and stingingly denounced him.
A spark illuminated and a raging wildfire was soon to follow.
A much wider protest movement would ensue and intensify exponentially.
Naturally Donald Trump weighed in to fan the flames.
NFL owners, he said, should “fire the sons of bitches” who protest during the national anthem.
He criticized and characterized the kneeling as “disgraceful.” He added with his own inimitable bluster that, “You have to stand proudly for the national anthem, or you shouldn’t be playing, you shouldn’t be there.
Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country.”
He said that.
A civil protest becomes a deportable offense to the Commander-in-Chief.
Par for the course.
After the 2016 season Kaepernick became a free agent and remained unsigned, which from pundits to casual observers was attributed to his political stance.
In November 2017 he filed a grievance along with teammate Eric Reid against the NFL and the owners, accusing them of colluding to keep him out of the league.
They withdrew the grievance in February 2019 upon reaching a confidential settlement with the NFL believed to be less than $10 million — as reported by The Wall Street Journal — split between Kaepernick and Reid, the first player to join him in kneeling during the national anthem.
If the $10 million figure is accurate, it would translate into each team ponying up roughly $300,000 apiece, a relative pittance.
(Reid, pursuant, has filed grievances on his own behalf).
Kaepernick:
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder,” [referencing a series of African-American deaths caused by law enforcement, leading to the Black Lives Matter movement].
Kaepernick added that he would continue to protest until he feels like “[the American flag] represents what it’s supposed to represent.”
Almost Muhammad Ali-like.
In a piece entitled, “What Do You Think of Colin Kaepernick Now?” Michael Rosenberg of Sports Illustrated posits, “Mainstream white America is going to reconsider Kaepernick at some point — the way it reconsidered Muhammad Ali years after he refused to go to Vietnam, the way it reconsidered Jackie Robinson and Jack Johnson. Progress comes in fits and starts, and this country tends to punish those who urge it to move faster. The reconsideration of Kaepernick has begun.”
In fact, in August after the horrific shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old African-American man— shot by police seven times in the back — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated outright that he wished the league had paid closer attention to, and respected unconditionally Kaepernick’s reasons for kneeling.
At least that was something…but not too much.
And nowhere near enough.
So how is it that a 32-year-old quarterback of Colin Kaepernick’s repute, who opted out of his contract and became a free agent at the start of the 2017 league year on March 9, 2017, has not landed a spot on an NFL roster to this very day?
COLIN KAEPERNICK’S CAREER STATS:
Regular Season — 69 G; 58 GS; 1,011 Comp; 1,692 Att; 59.8 Comp Pct; 12,271 Yds; 72 TD; 30 Int; 88.9 QBR; 375 Rushing Att; 2,300 Rushing Yds; 6.1 Avg Yds/Att; 13 TD; 28–30 W/L
Playoffs — 6 G; 6 GS; 94 Comp; 162 Att; 58.0 Comp Pct; 1,374 Yds; 7 TD; 5 Int; 87.3 QBR; 51 Rushing Att; 507 Rushing Yds; 9.9 Avg Yds/Att; 4 TD; 4–2 W/L
COLIN KAEPERNICK’S AWARDS AND HONORS:
— 2017 GQ Magazine Citizen of the Year;
— 2017 Sports Illustrated Muhammad Ali Legacy Award;
— 2017 American Civil Liberties Union Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award;
— 2017 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship Honoree;
— 2018 Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award;
— 2018 Harvard University W.E.B. Du Bois Medal
[This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in October 2020.]
