Colin Kaepernick is the epitome of an NFL benchwarmer success story. Thrown onto the field in 2012 when Alex Smith, then the San Francisco 49ers starting quarterback, suffered a concussion mid-season, Kaepernick went on to lead his team to the Super Bowl. Although they lost, he started the next year over Smith and fans were enamored with his style. At that point in his NFL career, he looked like a champion. He quickly lost his hot streak in following seasons, however, and now is a benchwarmer once again. He started on Sunday for the first time this season. How is it that someone who was primarily a benchwarmer until now currently has one of the top-selling NFL jerseys?
The answer is, because of his protests. Kaepernick refused to stand for "The Star-Spangled Banner" during all of the 49ers' preseason games. He said he did this because he didn’t want to show pride in a country where he believes African-Americans are being oppressed by the police force. Although Kaepernick had been doing this all preseason, it didn’t gain attention until the Aug. 26 game against the Green Bay Packers. Just 12 short days later, Kaepernick’s jersey had gone from being the No. 20-selling jersey to the No. 1, top-selling NFL jersey.
Was this a publicity stunt? Possibly.
It is impossible to overlook the fact that Kaepernick had not been a starter for most of last season and his coach was facing an upcoming decision of having to cut at least one of his four quarterbacks. Kaepernick had to know that refusing to stand for the time-honored national anthem would eventually gain him some much-needed press attention. How would it make his coach look to cut a player making a stand for minorities? On Sept. 3, just eight days after Kaepernick’s publicized protest and when his jersey sales were climbing, he was named the team’s official second-string quarterback.
Not only do Kaepernick’s protests look suspiciously similar to publicity stunts, but they are also disrespectful. Yes, police brutality is something that needs to be addressed, and yes, it is within Kaepernick’s constitutional rights to refuse to stand for the national anthem. However, the only kind of attention such behavior brings to the issue is negative. Instead of using his celebrity to highlight policing problems by a press release or official statement, Kaepernick decided he would disrespect an anthem meant to honor those who have given of themselves for their country. This is not Kaepernick’s first instance of disrespect towards those serving our country, either.
During the 49ers' Aug. 10 and 12 summer practices, Kaepernick was photographed wearing socks with cartoons of pigs dressed as policemen on them. He did this as a precursor to his refusal to rise for the national anthem in order to start gaining attention for his campaign against police brutality. These socks are nothing short of childish. Believing that you can end a nation’s racial crisis by some offensively decorated socks is ridiculous. Believing you can gain publicity for them is not.
In short, all of the ways that Kaepernick has protested police brutality in our country have been ineffective in solving the problem yet effective in gaining him publicity and securing his spot on the team. I commend players who use their place in the public eye to further important causes, but not those who do so in an offensive, unproductive way. Our country already has enough negativity. Let’s focus on finding positive solutions to negative situations. We need to find ways to work together, to live together, to mend together. We need champions who do more than just hurl insults.