Ten years after he caused an uproar for kneeling during the national anthem, Colin Kaepernick still has plenty of beef with the NFL.
“I’m not gonna support an organization that one, is actively blackballing me, but two, has targeted my brothers who have been protesting as part of this as well,” Kaepernick, 38, told NBC News in an interview published on Tuesday, September 1.
The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback said he no longer spends his Sundays watching the league.
“I watch college football,” he boasted.
In September 2016, Kaepernick caused a national conversation when he took a knee during “The Star-Spangled Banner” before a preseason game in protest of racial inequality and police brutality in the United States.
“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 Network at the time.
Kaepernick — who led the 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2013 — continued to protest the national anthem throughout the 2016 season, which became a lightning rod of debate and controversy. Donald Trump, who was running for president at the time, told Kaepernick he should “find a country that works better for him.”
After the 2016 season, Kaepernick became a free agent. He has yet to be signed by another team or play in another NFL game.
“Coming on the back of going to a Super Bowl, going to an NFC Championship, setting records, and not a single team would bring me in, even for a workout?” Kaepernick questioned in his sit-down with NBC News.
Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL and team owners in November 2017, accusing them of purposefully keeping him out of the league. He withdrew the grievance in February 2019 after reaching a confidential settlement with the league.
After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell put out a video saying that he and the league “condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black people.”
Kaepernick argued on Tuesday that Goodell, 67, made the video “only because of pressure from players, not because it was altruistic.”
“We had been trying to address the issue that the NFL created with blackballing me for years,” Kaepernick told NBC. “To come out and say we should have listened on the back of that — while I’m still actively trying to play in the NFL — it’s so performative.”
He added, “I don’t think the NFL has materially changed. None of their actions show that. We have seen it time and time again. For them, it has gone back to business as usual, and I think that is a tragedy that we have allowed them to be able to get to that point.”
In a statement to NBC News, the NFL said, “The issues Colin and other NFL players raised remain important to the league and deserving of continued attention and action.”
The statement continued, “Since 2017, that work has reached thousands of national and grassroots partners, backed by more than $575 million in contributions. We remain committed to listening, collaborating and taking action that creates lasting impact.”
