Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is ripping the NFL over its social justice policies and programs and says the league is hypocritical to be pushing “performative” social justice after they “blackballed” him out of his pro football career.
The NFL recently announced it is renewing its so-called “anti-racism” campaign for a seventh year by continuing to place social justice messages on the sidelines and to sponsor “anti-racism” decals on player helmets.
But Kaepernick is critical of the league’s social justice programs, and he apparently does not think the NFL is really very serious about the issues, according to NBC News.
“His response through that video was only because of pressure from players, not because it was altruistic,” Kaepernick said of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s recent statements about condemning racism and his apology for not listening sooner to the players about their support for Black Lives Matter.
Kaepernick added that Goodell’s apology for not listening to players “is so laughable in my mind, and so disingenuous.”
“We had been trying to address the issue that the NFL created with blackballing me for years,” he complained. “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.”
Kaepernick, of course, quickly became the face of anti-American protests in sports in 2016 when he refused to stand up for America during the playing of the national anthem. He protested for the entire 2016 NFL season, but when he became a free agent at the end of that season, no team picked him up, and he has not played in the NFL since.
Kaepernick also blasted the NFL for its on-field anti-racism messaging, and called the program nothing but a marketing scheme.
“‘End Racism’ in the back of the end zone is a great marketing campaign, but what are the actions behind it?” Kaepernick said.
NBC added that, “He adds that at the same time the league was putting slogans on the field, it was employing the practice of ‘race norming,’ arguing that Black players began their careers with lower cognitive function in an effort to deny them payments as a result of a 2013 concussion lawsuit.”
The league stopped that practice in 2021.
Regardless, as far as Kaepernick is concerned, the league’s commitments to social justice are all just window dressing.
“I don’t think the NFL has materially changed. None of their actions show that,” Kaepernick insisted. “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.”
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