Last season -- when Donald Trump was nominated for President, but was most certainly not part of the issue -- Kaepernick, who is biracial, and was then the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, dropped to one knee, and knelt during the pregame playing of the National Anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner."
The reason was that he wanted to bring attention to the fact that, in many cities around this country, white police officers were murdering unarmed black suspects and getting away with it.
And right-wingers like Trump have said he is disrespecting the flag, the Anthem, police officers and our troops.
Here's what Kaepernick said at the time:
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.
NFL legends, black men who are among the most respected players in the League's history -- but also, both with criminal records -- Jim Brown and Ray Lewis have both said that they believe Kaepernick is "desecrating the flag."
In contrast, one of America's most famous living former police officers, Frank Serpico -- yes, the man played by Al Pacino in the film Serpico was a real guy, who fought against the corruption of his fellow officers -- held a demonstration with fellow cops at the Brooklyn Bridge, in support of Kapernick.
After last season ended, Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the 49ers, because they'd made it clear they'd rather have Blaine Gabbert as their starter. Gabbert is not a very good quarterback. Kaepernick is about to turn 30, which is hardly old for a quarterback. He completed 59 percent of his passes last season, averaging 6.8 yards per throw (not per completed catch), with 16 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions in 12 games. He also rushed for 468 yards, including 2 touchdowns. So, clearly, he can still get the job done.
And he has gotten a team into a Super Bowl, although they didn't win. Got close, though. He certainly didn't embarrass himself in a Super Bowl, as have other quarterbacks -- including, in 2, despite his 5 wins, Tom Brady.
No team has signed him. Not as a starter. Not even as a backup.
The New York Jets have 3 quarterbacks on their current roster: Josh McCown, Christian Hackenberg and Bryce Petty. If Josh McCown is your backup quarterback, you might be okay. If he's you're starter, you're screwed.
The New York Giants have 3 quarterbacks on their current roster: Eli Manning, Davis Webb, and Geno Smith, who was judged by the Jets to be not good enough to start for them, part of the quarterback mess they've had since Mark Sanchez fell apart in the 2012 season -- 5 years ago.
Eli is a Hall-of-Famer-in-waiting. But he's also 36 years old, so they need to find his successor now. Granted, the Giants have issues beyond the quarterback position (as do the Jets), so it's not a priority the way it is with the Jets. But if they had a starter-in-waiting, they could be a lot more secure.
So there's 2 teams in the nation's biggest metro area that need to have a good quarterback. Kaepernick could have anywhere from 5 to 10 good years left in him. (Plenty of quarterbacks have done well even in their early 40s.) Neither is signing him.
In Los Angeles, which recently got 2 of its former teams back after 20 seasons with no NFL team at all, the starting quarterback for the Rams is Jared Goff. For the Chargers, it's Philip Rivers -- famously exchanged at the 2004 draft for Eli, and only about a year younger.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, the 49ers have only 2 quarterbacks on their roster. Gabbert is no longer one of them. (The Arizona Cardinals took him, to replace an aging, injured Carson Palmer.) They are Brian Hoyer and C.J. Beathard. Maybe Beathard will turn out to be a good one, but, for the moment, he's a rookie. And the Oakland Raiders have David Carr, EJ Manuel (no periods on his initials) and Connor Cook.
In Chicago, the starting quarterback for the Bears is... Mark Sanchez.
So that's the nation's 4 largest metropolitan areas, who, between them, have 7 teams, representing about 52 million people.
Kaepernick is better than anybody they have, with the possible exceptions of 36-year-old Eli, nearly 36-year-old Rivers, and maybe Carr.
The next-largest metro area is that of Boston, the team representing New England. Their starter is Tom Brady -- the best quarterback in the NFL (if you believe he doesn't cheat, ha, ha), but 40 years old. His backup is Jimmy Garoppolo. For the moment, they don't have a 3rd-string quarterback.
So that's the top 5 metro areas, with 8 teams, representing 60 million people, and they all need a good starting quarterback, either right now or soon.
None of them have approached Colin Kaepernick. Who is better than most current NFL quarterbacks, has gotten an average team into a Super Bowl, and doesn't turn 30 until this coming November 3.
Obviously, it isn't because of his talent level, which is not, as some would have you believe, "in decline." As Chuck Modiano pointed out in the Daily News this past May 12:
Kaepernick had a 90.7 passer rating last year despite a horrible team. Throw out his first two post-injury, get-the-rust-off starts, and that rating becomes 96.5. Fast forward to his last four games, and it’s 100.1...
Broncos general manager John Elway passed on Kaepernick, but found time to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration, and to publicly stump for his Supreme Court pick. The Jets’ Woody Johnson donated a million bucks to Trump’s campaign and was rewarded an ambassadorship to Great Britain. Texans owner Robert McNair also donated a million dollars, and will begin the season with the NFL’s best defense and a starting quarterback named Tom Barage.
And the fact that his name is actually Tom Savage and it didn’t stop you tells you all you need to know...
They prioritize discrimination over winning, but lack the football guts to admit it.
They are the pure cowards.
And will remain as such until they own their discrimination, and proudly state:
“I would rather not win the Super Bowl than sign Colin Kaepernick."
It is not the greatest statement, but at least it’s an honest one.
And then maybe, we can actually start to have an honest Colin Kaepernick conversation.
Rather not win the Super Bowl? Let's take it further than that: Rather than sign Colin Kaepernick, these owners would prefer to go 0-16.*
Naturally, as he has to do with everything -- except, you know, actually doing the job that he stole from Hillary Clinton -- Donald Trump had to make it all about himself.
On March 20, he told a crowd in Kentucky, "There was an article today, it was reported, that NFL owners don't want to pick him up, because they don't want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump. Do you believe that?" Big cheers from those rednecks.
Last week, at a rally in Alabama, a State that sure 'nough loves its football, but has so often been identified with racism, and justly so, Trump said this about any players who follow Kaepernick in kneeling during the Anthem, invoking his catchphrase from The Apprentice: "Get that son of a bitch off the field right now! He's fired! He's fired!"
He added, "For a week, (that owner would) be the most popular person in this country. Because that's a total disrespect of our heritage. That's a total disrespect for everything we stand for."
That's what Donald Trump is all about: Being popular this week. Popular enough to get the things he craves: Attention, praise, money, sex. He wants to be popular this week, and he wants the people he likes to be popular this week. Next week? He'll worry about that when it comes.
Well, he went too far. How do we know? Because guys that supported him, or who you would think support him, have turned on him.
Former Jets and Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan, Oklahoma native:
I'm pissed off. I'll be honest with you. Because I supported Donald Trump. When he asked me to introduce him at a rally in Buffalo, I did that. But I'm reading these comments and it's appalling to me and I'm sure it's appalling to almost any citizen in our country. It should be.
You know, calling our players SOBs, and all that kind of stuff, that's not the men that I know. The men that I know in the locker room, I'm proud of. I'm proud to be associated with those people.
Fox NFL Sunday analyst Terry Bradshaw, Hall of Fame quarterback, 4-time Super Bowl winner, Louisiana native, Texas resident, proud Southerner, and, despite having been married 4 times (1 more than Trump), certainly behaves more like a Christian in public than most people who claim to be:
This is America. If our country stands for anything, folks, it's freedom. People died for that freedom.
I'm not sure if our President understands those rights. That every American has the right to speak out also to protest. Believe me, these athletes do love our this great country of ours. Personally, I think our President should concentrate on North Korea and healthcare rather than ripping into athletes and the NFL.
And this is a big name on Fox. Ask Hollywood Henderson how dumb Terry is now.
*
But this past weekend, things changed. The Pittsburgh Steelers -- Bradshaw's former team, coached by Mike Tomlin, probably the highest-profile black person in NFL leadership right now -- stayed in their locker room during the Anthem. So did the Seattle Seahawks and the Tennesse Titans, before their game with each other -- and the Anthem singer and her guitarist both took a knee.
And, last night, before their Monday Night Football game with the Arizona Cardinals, the Dallas Cowboys, including head coach Jason Garrett and team owner Jerry Jones, held hands and knelt on the field, before the Anthem (not during it).
Jerry Jones is from Arkansas. He is a Southerner. He was a member of the University of Arkansas football team that won a share of the 1964 National Championship. When they won the Cotton Bowl on Near Year's Day 1965, a fan ran onto the field to celebrate with them, holding a big Confederate battle flag. Jerry is the epitome of the good ol' boy who made good -- well, one who succeeded, anyway.
And, aside from the Yankees, who also opened a big, expensive new stadium in 2009, no team in all of Western Hemisphere sports -- and on the other side of the world, only Manchester United, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona even try -- better symbolizes big money, conspicuous consumption, and unfettered capitalism than the Dallas Cowboys, in spite of not having been to a Super Bowl in 22 seasons.
And Jerry Jones basically just said, "Donald, I agree with you on economic issues, and I agree with you on foreign policy issues, but don't you dare tell me how to run my business."
There is one thing that sports team owners value more than money. And that is control. They don't want anyone telling them how to run their teams.
In case you've forgotten, Donald Trump was the owner of the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League. Because of his lobbying, the other USFL owners decided in 1985 to stop playing in the Spring, and go head-to-head with the NFL in the Fall, and go through with their antitrust lawsuit?
The result? They won the suit, and received damages of $1.00. Without the damages they thought they were going to get, the USFL didn't have the money to operate. They listened to Donald Trump, and they went bankrupt.
And it didn't help that people didn't really think there was a need for another football league. Sure, fans in Baltimore and Oakland didn't currently have NFL teams; and San Antonio, Memphis, Birmingham, Orlando and Jacksonville had never had them. But, how many cities with teams in both leagues had one where the USFL team was better? At the time, just Tampa Bay and Houston. (Philadelphia? Not by that point, because the Stars had moved to Baltimore.)
Trump has already lost one popularity contest with the NFL. He's not going to win this one, either.
*
But there is an elephant in the room. And, no, I'm not referring to the fact that Trump is fat. And, no, I'm not referring to the fact that he belongs to the Republican Party, whose symbol is the elephant.
The elephant in the room is Colin Kapernick's original point. The NFL doesn't want to talk about it.
Today, he co-hosts Skip and Shannon: Undisputed with Skip Bayless on Fox Sports 1. Again: Like Bradshaw, he's doing this on Fox, the network that nearly always supports Trump, because their leaders are lying, moneygrubbing, warmongering sex fiends, too.
As Sharpe rightly points out, there is a larger issue, which those 32 men who run NFL teams refuse to talk about.
Note that, when I want to emphasize a word, I usually use italics; but when I have an extended quote like this, I use italics for all of it, and underline what I think are the key words. The emphasis is mine, not necessarily that of the person talking:
I'm disappointed. And I'm unimpressed. I'm disappointed, Skip, and Joy, because this is the tipping point. Of the 7,537 things that President Trump has said in the last 50 years, him calling an NFL player an SOB is what brought the NFL, the owners and its players, together. And while some might be moved by the conscience of these NFL owners, it wasn't their conscience that moved them. It was the cash.
Because, see, Skip, what we know about people with money, they don't like being told what to do. They don't like being bullied.
You see, President Trump has bullied a lot of people. The very first thing that he uttered as he strolled down that escalator 2 and 1/2 years ago, is that Mexico is sending us their worst, murderers, rapists, drug dealers. That didn't shock the conscience of the NFL owner.
Him offending Gold Star Families, nope. Him calling Rosie O'Donnell a pig. Him on the Access Hollywood talking about grabbing hoo-ha. That did not shock the very conscience of seven NFL owners.
Skip, allow me a second to name those guys. One, Daniel Snyder. The guy who's on your monitor. Jerry Jones, Bob, Mr. Bob Kraft. McNair, Houston Texans. Woody Johnson, Shahid Khan.
They gave a million dollars for the inauguration of President Trump. And now they seem to be shocked.
Every author that's written a book about President Trump, and they started writing books about him in the 1980s, they say he is exactly today as he was then. So that is all I want to say about him, Skip. Now what has happened?
Because what he said in Alabama plays into what-- you know what happens in Alabama, Skip. There's something that's going on in America right now that's more valuable than Google and Apple stock. Is more valuable than gold and bitcoin. It's called race.
It's very valuable. And President Trump, he understands that.
But Skip, now I'm unimpressed because this wasn't a protest. This was unity. So what are we showing solidarity against, Skip? We're showing solidarity because President Trump, he challenged the very men, wealthy, wealthy, men. Billionaires. And he told them what you should do if someone protests. You should fire them. They don't like being told what to do, Skip. And then, Skip, he called players that protested the anthem, he called them SOBs.
Think about that now. He called them SOBs. That's what got the owners. That's what got the players to unite. Is that the worst that he's ever said? Absolutely not. Never call Vladimir Putin an SOB. Never called Erdogan of Turkey an SOB.
Even those men that walked down the streets in Charlottesville, Virginia, Skip, carrying the tiki lights. Hollering what they were hollering. Inciting violence. He never said SOB. As a matter of fact, he said, there were some good people in that group.
What has transpired, Skip, again, because what were they uniting against? It's almost like they were uniting against Colin Kaepernick's right for free speech. That's not what Colin Kaepernick is talking about. It's almost like they are uniting against you tried to attack us.
Because see what happened, Skip, when he was from the bully pulpit, when he was looking down upon everybody else, the owners never had a problem with that. It wasn't until he came for the NFL that their conscience was shocked. How dare you tell us what we should do. You think you can tell us that we should fire somebody? Because remember, there's a First Amendment.
And, what, 14 months after Colin Kaepernick originally kneeled, and when they ask him, he said it's not about the flag. It's not about the veterans. It's not about the police. It's about the brutality that unarmed men and women of color are suffering. It's about the injustices. It's about the inequities that's going on in America.
That's what he said. And still we talk about the freedom of speech, and in all these teams released the statements, said how divisive. Only the Seattle Seahawks touched on what the real issue was. And the problem that I have, Skip, is that these guys, some of them.
And I'm very disappointed, in a few I like to say, I'm very disappointed in one of my very best friends, Ray Lewis. Ray Lewis sat in that chair right there, and said that he could never kneel. He could never not stand for the national anthem, because so many people died and he had family members that fight for this country for the opportunity-- and the flag means so much to him. And he kneeled. Not on one knee, on both knees. So what were you kneeling for? You kneeled, you showed solidarity, because of what President Trump said?
And when Colin Kaepernick is trying to draw attention to the injustices going on, you deem that inappropriate? LeSean McCoy, you remember what you said about a month ago, about Colin Kaepernick? Not only were you kneeling, you were stretching. You were even worse than kneeling. The hypocrisy.
And that's what I find so ironic about this, Skip. The very people that said they could never, ever, kneel. Some people, I like Tom Brady. Tom Brady said I'm not going to touch it. I prefer you do that. But these, all of a sudden, I just want to know what are unified against?
Are you, are you showing unity? Are you showing solidarity against racism? Or the injustices that's in this country? Or are you showing solidarity against President Trump and what he said, his attack on the very NFL, the shield. Because what we know about, above all else, those 32 men, and the commissioner, will protect that NFL shield at all costs, against all foreign and domestic. President Trump had to find that out the hard way.
They've allowed him to attack so many groups in America. It wasn't until he came for one of 32, and 1,600 men, and only a handful, only a handful of them, Skip, have ever kneeled in protest. And he called him an SOB. And that shocked the conscience, Skip.
Not grabbing the Access Hollywood, Joy. That didn't shock anybody. He offended a Gold Star Family that lost their son fighting for this country. He called John McCain, a loser because he was captured. John McCain was a POW in Vietnam. He refused to come home until everybody came home. NFL didn't say a word. Nobody locked arms.
So what are we uniting against? What are we standing for now? If that is what it took, what he said, if that's what shocked your conscience. If that made you choose to unite, so be it.
But there's a bigger issue, and the issue is the racism, and the injustices, in America, in which Colin Kaepernick took a knee for in the beginning. And only Martellus and Michael Bennett, and Malcolm Jenkins, and a handful still understand what the issues are.
Yes. It all started because Kaepernick wanted to bring attention to white cops murdering unarmed black suspects, because they could get away with it.
And the NFL, with 70 percent of its players black, but ownership consisting of 1 Pakistani-born Muslim, Shahid Khan, and 31 white men (or groups whose controlling authority is a white man), could have said, "Colin Kaepernick is making a point, and I think we need to address it."
Instead, it's said nothing about that point. What they are saying is, "We don't want to have Kaepernick on our roster, because we would lose money. But that's our decision. You don't get to tell us what our decision should be."
That is not what the First Amendment means. The free speech part of the First Amendment means, "You can say what you want, and the government can't stop you, so long as you're not defaming someone or inciting violence."
In terms relevant to this discussion: The First Amendment means, "I can tell you what you should do with your team, whether it's who should play quarterback, what kind of defense you should have, who your coach should be, or even what your uniforms should look like. And the law can't stop me from telling you. But you are under no obligation to agree."
Because, as offensive as Donald Trump is, he does have the right to tell the NFL owners how they should run their teams -- just as the guys calling in to WFAN or any other all-sports station do. In that respect, Trump is just like the rest of us.
But they don't have to agree. Like him, they are rich men who like telling other people what to do, but don't like to be told themselves, and, when they are, they can't handle it.
"First, they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Socialist. Then, they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then, they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then, they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."
-- Martin Niemöller (the exact wording is in dispute, but this is the traditional version)First, Trump came for Barack Obama. Then, he came for the Mexicans. Then, he came for the Muslims. Then, he came for the women. Then, he came for an NFL player. And the NFL team owners did not speak out.
Then, Trump came for the NFL owners -- not to denounce them, but merely to tell them what he thinks they should do. Only then did they speak out.
But when Colin Kaepernick spoke out, the NFL owners issued not a peep.
Until we get that peep, let those of us who oppose Trump not celebrate them too hard.