Kaepernick vs The Man
23rd October 2017 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
Throughout the course of his collegiate and professional football career, Colin Kaepernick has always come across as mild-mannered and respectful. He never appeared to be an egomaniac, pampered athlete or a troublemaker. That is why it was so gratifying and intriguing to see him embark on a journey into self-discovery and Black consciousness that compelled him to take a stand against bigotry and racial injustice last season.
After being blackballed and locked out of free agency by all 32 NFL team owners this season, Kaepernick has taken his personal struggle to the next level, willfully taking on some of the most powerful businessmen in the United States and challenging their right to dictate how and when professional athletes exercise their constitutional right to free speech.
Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL on Sunday, October 15, alleging that the reason he has been overlooked by all 32 team owners is collusion, and an attempt to make an example out of him.
The issue made national and international headlines last season after a reporter asked the quarterback why he was not standing for the national anthem. Prior to being asked, Kaepernick had been quietly sitting in protest of the racial injustice that has claimed the lives of a large number of Black and Brown people at the hands of law enforcement officers in recent years.
After speaking with a military veteran, Kaepernick agreed that it was more respectful to U.S. servicemen to kneel rather than sit during the national anthem.
He was joined in kneeling by fellow 49er Eric Reid, a former LSU standout who continues to kneel to honor Kaepernick and raise awareness of ongoing racial injustice.
The protest began to spread to NFL players on other teams last season and prompted a national conversation on athletes’ right to free speech.
Ironically, among those who have criticized Kaepernick is Michael Vick, who went to jail for cruelty to animals and was vilified by NFL fans. Vick, who some Virginia Tech fans say does not belong in the university’s athletic hall of fame despite his accomplishments on the gridiron, said Kaepernick, who had been seen on the sidelines rocking an afro and corn rolls, should get a haircut. Really Mike?
Former Baltimore Ravens player Ray Lewis, who has also had brushes with the law, has also been critical of Kaepernick and his campaign to spark a national conversation about racial injustice.
Still, Lewis was seen earlier this season down on both knees before a Ravens football game. When asked about it, Lewis reportedly said he was praying, not protesting racial injustice.
Since Kaepernick opted out of his 49ers contract, no other team has signed him despite a rash of injuries and poor quarterback play on a number of teams.
The Associated Press reported that Mark Geragos, one of Kaepernick’s attorneys, said in a statement posted on Twitter on Oct. 15 that he filed the grievance “only after pursuing every possible avenue with all NFL teams and their executives.”
“If the NFL (as well as all professional sports leagues) is to remain a meritocracy, then principled and peaceful political protest — which the owners themselves made great theater imitating weeks ago — should not be punished,” Geragos said in the statement, “and athletes should not be denied employment based on partisan political provocation by the executive branch of our government. Such a precedent threatens all patriotic Americans and harkens back to our darkest days as a nation.”
San Francisco safety Eric Reid has been kneeling during the anthem before games, including the Oct. 15 26-24 loss at the Washington Redskins.
“I’ll have to follow up with him,” Reid said after the game. “It sure does seem like he’s being blackballed. I think all the stats prove that he’s an NFL-worthy quarterback. So that’s his choice and I support his decision. We’ll just have to see what comes of it.”
The NFL players’ union said it would support the grievance, which was filed through the arbitration system that’s part of the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
“Colin Kaepernick’s goal has always been, and remains, to simply be treated fairly by the league he performed at the highest level for and to return to the football playing field,” Geragos said.
The thing is, you never know who’s watching and who sees your light when you stand up in an effort to spark a movement for justice and equity.
The movement led by Kaepernick and other NFL athletes has already gone global as evidenced by a German soccer team’s recent gesture during a contest.
The Associated Press reported on Oct. 14 that Hertha Berlin nodded to social struggles in the U.S. by kneeling before its Bundesliga home game on Saturday, Oct. 14.
“We wanted to make a stand against racism,” Hertha captain Per Skjelbred said after their 2-0 loss to Schalke.
Hertha’s starting lineup linked arms and took a knee on the pitch, while Pal Dardai’s coaching staff, general manager Michael Preetz, club officials and substitutes took a knee off it before kickoff.
“Hertha BSC stands for tolerance and responsibility! For a tolerant Berlin and an open-minded world, now and forevermore!” the club said on Twitter.
“Hertha Berlin stands for diversity and against violence. For this reason we are joining the protest of American athletes and setting a sign against discrimination,” the stadium announcer told more than 50,000 fans attending the game at Berlin’s Olympiastadion, originally built for the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany.
“We’re no longer living in the 18th century but in the 21st century. There are some people, however, who are not that far ideologically yet,” Hertha defender Sebastian Langkamp said. “If we can give some lessons there with that, then that’s good.”
Ivory Coast forward Salomon Kalou said the whole team was unanimous in its support for the action.
“We stand against racists and that’s our way of sharing that. We are always going to fight against this kind of behavior, as a team and as a city,” said Kalou, who acknowledged the action was inspired by the American athletes’ protest against discrimination.
“It shouldn’t exist in any kind of event, in the NFL or in the football world, soccer as they call it there. It shouldn’t exist in any sport, period,” Kalou said.
No one knows what will become of the NFL player protest or what the outcome of the Kaepernick lawsuit against the NFL will be.
Sometimes displaying courage, temerity, a revolutionary spirit and a willingness to lay everything on the line is more important than winning an actual battle. It can lay the foundation for a movement by creating a blueprint of resistance in the face of power and inspire generations to come by teaching them that there will always be principles worth fighting and dying for.
That’s no different than the lessons France and the United States want children to learn when they study the history of the French and American revolutions.
What is certain is that the athletes’ collective efforts to raise awareness of racial injustice and bigotry will continue to inspire people in the U.S. and around the world and further decolonize the minds of impressionable young people who look up to professional athletes and hang on their every word and action.
While there may always be “$60 million slaves” among us, we are witnessing the birth of a new class of professional athletes, one that places a high premium on social justice, equity and human dignity. All power to the people.
This article originally published in the October 23, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
