Embattled player within his rights
It was the “sit” heard round the world.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, as everyone who does not live under a rock knows by now, ignited a firestorm of controversy Aug. 26 when he declined to stand up for the national anthem before one of his team’s preseason games.
For Kaepernick, it was a protest against inequality and oppression that he sees visited upon people of color in this land of ours. And, predictably, many people lost their minds.
On social media, the love-it-or-leave-it crowd trashed his character and called him names we can’t reprint here. Some, of course, resorted to using the “n word” against him, pretty much making Kaepernick’s point for him. Others, including noted deep thinker Donald Trump, suggested that Kaepernick find another country in which to reside if he’s not happy with the way we do things in the good old U.S. of A.
Across the NFL, Kaepernick found friends and foes.
Victor Cruz, a receiver with the New York Giants, told USA Today, “I think, personally, the flag is the flag. Regardless of how you feel about the things that are going on in America today and the things that are going on across the world with gun violence and things like that, you’ve got to respect the flag and stand up with your teammates. It’s bigger than just you, in my opinion.”
But Miami Dolphins running back Arian Foster said on Twitter, “You can’t be selective and dictate what freedoms this country stands for. You’re free to have any religious/political views you feel.”
One that Kaepernick feels is that people from minority groups (for the record, he’s biracial and was raised by white parents) are not getting equal rights and treatment from police and other governmental entities. Kaepernick said he’s not “going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”
Of course, that opened him up to accusations that he hates the police and he hates our troops and he just plain hates America.
But what if Kaepernick had rooted himself to that bench and then told the assembled media that he was doing so because he was a Christian who could no longer stand to honor a flag flying over a country that allowed children to be murdered through legal abortion. We feel certain that many of those same folks who are now excoriating him would instead be elevating him to a Tebow-esque level and hailing him as an American hero.
We also wonder whether the folks who are figuratively tearing out their hair and rending their garments over a middling NFL player refusing to stand for the nation’s official song had the same level of outrage when a 12-year-old boy playing with a pellet gun was gunned down by police in Cleveland a couple years ago.
How many people who attend sporting events are truly emotionally invested in the national anthem when it is played or sung before games? How many are truly thinking about the sacrifices our servicemen and women are making, or about their love of their country? How many are thinking instead about that first pitch or kickoff, or about getting another beer?
We’re very selective about what we’re willing to forgive when it comes to the behavior of our professional athletes. Would Kaepernick be getting better treatment in Western Pennsylvania if he happened to be a star player for the Steelers? It would seem so, based on past experience. You might recall quarterback Ben Roethlisberger getting himself embroiled in not one, but two allegations of rape, and linebacker James Harrison, some years back, assaulting the mother of his child. All was forgiven by the vast majority of “Steelers Nation.”
At the heart of this dispute is something we claim to hold very dear in this country: freedom of speech. Colin Kaepernick exercised his. You can exercise yours, either in support or opposition to what he did. But while you’re doing so, it wouldn’t hurt to think a little bit about the issues he’s trying to spotlight.