Colin Kaepernick is out of a job because of his silent protest that was anything but quiet in 2016.
Kaepernick, a former NFL quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, took a knee during the national anthem last season. He did so, in his words, to try to raise an awareness for the way black people are treated by police officers in this country. He was adamant that his intention was not to insult the military.
(Here’s an unwritten corollary of our great right to freedom of speech in our great country: You have the freedom of your speech, but you do not get to dictate how that speech is interpreted.)
Kaepernick’s protest for all intents and purposes cost him a seven- to eight-figure-a-year job. He is now unemployed, despite having thrown 16 TDs and only four interceptions. He is easily one of the best 50 quarterbacks on the planet, and for a team such as Baltimore to sign some guy named Thaddeus Lewis on the last day directly points to the reason why Kaepernick does not have a job.
Jay GreesonThe folks saying Kaepernick is not on a team for football reasons are just as wrong as the folks saying this is about race. After all, the NFL – more than 70 percent of its players are black – could make an argument that it is the least racist billion-dollar operation anywhere.