Recently, NFL player Kareem Hunt signed with the Cleveland Browns after a video surfaced of him getting into a physical altercation with a woman.
Not only did Hunt re-sign with another team only months after the Kansas City Chiefs released him for the altercation seen in the video, but he is also allowed to return to the field next year, following a likely suspension.
In previous years, we have seen cases of other athletes such as Greg Hardy, Tyreek Hill and countless others regarding violence against women, not to mention the college athletes who get into legal trouble before entering the NFL Draft. These players, like Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield, who was booked for resisting arrest and public intoxication while at the University of Oklahoma, all have one simple thing in common: they were given a second chance.
While there are people who are in the league after acting in manners frowned upon by our society and breaking the laws of this country, Colin Kaepernick has not been offered a job in the same league.
The NFL was vocally against Kaepernick’s act of sitting during the National Anthem, which began in August 2016. When asked about it, Kaepernick said he was attempting to raise the issue of the injustices and unfair treatment toward African-American citizens in our country.
However, after speaking with former Green Beret and NFL long snapper Nate Boyer, he and Boyer decided the best way to show respect for the military and get his point across was not to sit but to kneel.
By taking a knee against injustice, Kaepernick not only received undeserved hate and criticism from fans all over the world, but he was also talked about by former and then-active players.
After Nike made Kaepernick one of the lead faces in their recent campaign, the dominant sports apparel company received videos and messages from people who vowed to stop wearing the brand completely.
All of this over a man deciding to take a stance on an issue affecting countless minorities in this country? Then it hit me: the problem was never about disrespecting the flag. It could not be, with countless military personnel advocating for and against Kaepernick, making the point too objective.
This is about a man of color standing up to the privilege and societal passes so many others in our country benefit from. He took a knee to raise awareness about something people were trying to raise awareness for anyway, and yet nothing was being said or done. It took him outraging millions of people over a knee for him to get his point across.
We have seen him blackballed out of football while quarterbacks like Nathan Peterman were allowed to suit up for the 2018-19 season. This matter was never about his play, as he led one of his San Francisco 49ers teams to a Super Bowl, where they only lost by three points to the Baltimore Ravens. He happened to have an off-year when he decided to do something with his platform, something people use to argue his worth in the league.
We live in a world where politicians are accused of sexual assault, found guilty of blackface and simply lie to the public. The people making our laws and directly affecting our lives are allowed to continue doing their job as if they are held to a lower expectation than men who put on pads and throw around a ball.
So when NBA superstar LeBron James decides to speak up on what he believes as well, and he is told to “shut up and dribble,” you start to see when men of color who many feel are not meant to have a platform not only have one but use it to speak up for what they believe in, it makes people uncomfortable.
Said discomfort has caused the NFL to drop the ball on Kaepernick, and even with a settlement agreement on his collusion case filed upon the NFL finally coming to fruition, I cannot help but think the only thing left to do is make a wrong a right and make Colin Kaepernick an NFL quarterback once again.
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