San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has made it perfectly clear what he thinks about race relations in America with his protesting of the United States National Anthem.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game. “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.”
I support Kaepernick’s ability to make the statement he’s made and I will defend that to no end, but that doesn’t mean I agree with him. I think his statement is misguided and ill-informed about the issues. He, like many others, “Black Lives Matter” protesters have fallen for a trick. They have been made into nothing more than a political football to be tossed around by the Democrats and Republicans in an election year.
Bodies in the streets
The fact is, the numbers don’t back up Kaepernick’s claims. There were 38 deaths of unarmed African-Americans by police officers in the United States in 2015 according to the Washington Post. Out of those 38 deaths, 24 (63 percent) came after there was an assault or struggle an officer or the suspect attempted to grab the officer’s weapon. Here’s how the other 14 died:
- 1 – Officers mistook a cellphone for a gun
- 4 – Charged officers but were shot before an assault occurred
- 1 – Innocent bystander of another crime
- 2 – Acted like reaching for a weapon out of eyesight of the arresting officer
- 1 – Rammed officers with car
- 2 – Wrongful death
- 3 – Disputed
There are seven additional cases that the Post calls “unknown”, meaning they are either in dispute not enough information is available to classify them into a category.
According to the same database, there have been 13 deaths of unarmed African-Americans in 2016. The year is far from over and the data is far from complete. But it doesn’t help a rational person jump on the bandwagon to support someone like Colin Kaepernick when the data just doesn’t back up his claims. On mass, innocent African-Americans are not being killed by law enforcement. Perpetuating this misinformation with the platform available to an NFL quarterback is just uncalled for.
I will give you that one wrongful death at the hands of anyone, let alone the police, is too many. But this mass hysteria that police are hunting minorities for sport is just not true. Using charged language as Kaepernick is well within his rights as an American, but have likely damaged the cause he wishes to champion more than it has helped.
Political Football
The only reason American politicians ever do anything once they are elected is to help keep themselves in power. They don’t legislate to help the majority of people the most that they can, they largely legislate to help secure votes that will be important to their re-election. They do this by helping out their special interest groups whether they be social movements, labor unions, or large corporations, regardless to the cost to America as a whole. They don’t care about the consequences, intended or not, because their legislation has kept them in power. That’s not the way things should be, but it is actually how the American political system works.
Democrats will use Kaepernick’s statement to rile up support by paying lip service to the cause of “Black Lives Matter”. But since votes of African-Americans vote year after year for Democrats without hesitation, the party doesn’t have to enact any legislation to service the needs of the African-American community because they will vote for them no matter what.
Republicans can use Kaepernick’s statement to rile up support from their base playing to a segment of their voters with “how dare you disrespect the military members who died for that flag”. They will then go on to still not enact legislation that would benefit “Black Lives Matter” because they won’t vote for them anyway, so why bother?
Freedom of Speech but not from Consequences
Overall, Colin Kaepernick is an NFL quarterback who’s about to lose his battle for a starting job to arguably one of the biggest busts of a decade in Blaine Gabbert. It has nothing to do with the color of Kaepernick’s skin or his political statements it has 100 percent to do with his play on the field. He is more than capable as a backup, but not at the pay rate he’s scheduled to earn.
Kaepernick will earn just under $16 million dollars this year, regardless if he plays any games or not. That is a shit ton of money. He has the potential to earn another $78.8 million dollars with his 49ers contract but only just under $7.4 million of that is guaranteed. The 49ers can ditch out on over $70 million dollars without having to give a reason.
It was unlikely that Kaepernick was ever going to see that $70 plus million dollars because of his declining play on the field. But with his political statement, he has all but insured that he will not see a dime of that $70 million and will likely not be able to find work in the NFL again.
It is 100 percent okay for Colin Kaepernick to say what he said and do what he did. That is a right that he has an American. It is also 100 percent okay for the rest of the NFL to not employ an aging backup quarterback with deteriorating play on the field who will be a public relations headache off the field.
Stars in the NFL who rock the boat are tolerated because of their elite level play. Average to below average NFL players who rock to boat are quickly pushed aside, out of the light and replaced with players of the same talent level who don’t rock the boat.
This isn’t something unique to the NFL or sports in general. This is a fact of the NFL business model and generally a fact of life.
Kaepernick wouldn’t be the first one this season to have his career ended for speaking out about a controversial topic. Former Ravens left tackle Eugene Monroe was cut by Baltimore for his medical marijuana advocacy. There are plenty of teams with the salary cap room to afford Monroe and the need to upgrade their guy at offensive tackle, but he didn’t find work and retired. Monroe made the choice to put his advocacy ahead of his career. He made his bed, and now has to lie in it.
Colin Kaepernick may not realize it yet, but he might have just ruined his NFL career to do more harm than good to a cause that might not be based in reality. This is his choice and his choice alone. He won’t be able to blame anyone but himself if his career is adversely effected by his public statements.