It looks like that the prospect of being a free agent has injected a little patriotism into Colin Kaepernick. He has announced that henceforth he will no longer take a knee when the National Anthem is played at games but will stand like everyone else. It is a marvel what the need to repair one’s brand can do for someone’s sense of decency.
One of the most annoying aspects of the football season just past was the sight of Kaepernick protesting social injustice by taking a knee when the national anthem was played during San Francisco 49ers games.
The spectacle, taken up by a number of athletes, injected an unwelcome aspect of politics into professional and school sports.
Sports fans do not want to be confronted by someone’s political agenda when watching the big game. They want to see big guys throwing a ball around, running up and down the field, and running into and jumping on each other. In Kaepernick, they saw an entitlement-addled rich dude who was sticking a middle finger out at the flag and the country that had afforded him the opportunity to make millions playing a game.
As someone once said, “Do you want Trump? This is how you get more Trump!” Some future historian will, no doubt, delve into the idea that Kaepernick unwittingly drove people to vote for the Donald for president out of aggravation.
Kaepernick and his ilk have now confronted the world that they helped to create, one presided over by the most unlikely of leaders, a former businessman and reality TV star who is a disruptive force in both the good and bad senses of the word. That realization and the necessity to make a living is going to make him stand and salute the flag in the upcoming season,
Aside from making a spectacle of himself, Kaepernick did have a decent season, with 16 touchdowns and four interceptions according to Hot Air.
But that may not be enough to counteract the headaches of having a politically toxic player brings to a prospective team. The now former 49ers quarterback may have paid a steep price indeed for alienating the fans.
