Colin Kaepernick’s NFL protest revelation: The warning that left him calling it “unfathomable”
Colin Kaepernick says fear may have stopped more NFL players from joining his 2016 protest. In May 2018, NFL owners approved a policy requiring players and league personnel on the sideline to stand during the anthem, while allowing those who did not want to stand to remain in the locker room. Because he had not expected an NFL team owner to directly tell a player what he could or could not do as part of a protest, kaepernick said hearing that was difficult for him to understand.
Speaking with The New Yorker Radio Hour, the former 49ers quarterback said players told him their agents, family members or team owners had warned them against protesting. Kaepernick said one player even told him his owner said he could not protest, a response he described as “unfathomable. He said a player returned to him and said, “My owner told me that I can’t protest. He also said the pressure he experienced from the league was less direct. Kaepernick said nobody explicitly ordered him to stop kneeling. He called the approach “passive-aggressive” and said he saw it as an effort to redirect his protest. The league also said a team could be fined if a player protested on the field. Kaepernick told Remnick that he was not protesting against the NFL itself. His focus, he said, was on racial injustice and police brutality.
Kaepernick recalled one conversation in particular. Instead, he described suggestions such as, “Well, have you thought about doing something else? The NFL and NFL Players Association later agreed to put the policy on hold while they discussed the issue. He believes the league’s response showed that officials viewed his protest as something they needed to stop rather than an issue they needed to discuss.