From a personal standpoint, I don't really care what he chooses or doesn't choose to do on the sidelines to express himself or bring light to a certain situation. There's a lot more things going on in the NFL to be concerned about then some very non-violent protest that nobody made a big deal about (including himself), until a camera caught him doing it weeks after he actually started his personal protest.
He seems like a decent enough fella to me.
BTW, this is the same sport where half the league is pretty much functionally disabled in one way or another by the time these athletes reach their 50's.
This is the same league where one player was caught on camera beating his wife unconscious in an elevator, another player was convicted or murdering his wife, and another player was convicted of murdering his friend along with who knows what else he was involved with. Another player ran a brutal dog fighting ring for years after he joined the NFL, did a couple of years in prison for it, and came back and spent several more years in the league.
This is a league that much prefers their players to manage their intense pain with highly addictive and large amounts of dangerous opioids, rather then using much safer alternatives that I don't really have to name.
This is a league in which some sort of brain trauma or disease is almost guaranteed if you play it for more then a couple years or so. In many cases the sport catches up to them before they even leave college.
I'm going to take heat for this, but I can think of a lot more things to get emotional about then repressing a conditioned display of nationalistic pride to try and make some kind of point........whether you think it's misguided or not.
On to Kaepernick the football player. I don't think he is in any way getting blackballed. He has just not been very good when he's been on the field. If teams felt like he was still a difference maker, they'd be lining up to sign him.
I used to be high on him. I thought the 49'ers were smart to get rid of Alex Smith and keep Keap to begin with. I thought Kaep had the much bigger upside. Alex Smith was a solid, reliable QB to get you to the playoffs, but was too limited to go any further then that.
Turns out, Alex Smith was also much more durable then Kaep. Injuries took their toll on him along with lack of personnel in San Francisco after Harbough left, and he's regressed as a player ever since.
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