The Colin Kaepernick Thread

This could have been a good thread. I like Colin Kaepernick but feel he put a wrong foot here and it's worth discussing. But to wade though the noise of the 70 odd garbage post, not worth it.

He has a choice NOT to stand and respect the nations flag. nd I have a choice NOT to watch or support (hats, jerseys, etc) the ENTIRE NFL aka NO FUN LEAGUE !

You gonna be okay?
Need a hug?

People keep bringing up his $114 million contract. It's not a $114 million contract, there's a shitload of money in there that isn't guaranteed and it's mostly performance based.

In any event, Kap should be focusing more on football if he wants to keep his job, which he won't - the guy's play has gone so far downhill that I wouldn't be surprised if he was cut. Blaine fucking Gabbert is going to be named a starter over him, that's just embarrassing.

I'd be surprised if he's viewed as worthy of being picked up by another team now with this anthem baggage. Well maybe Dallas would take a flier...

I've never understood why his play has cratered so badly since leading the 49ers to the Super Bowl.

You don't tend to see that.

Agreed - you remember when he played Green Bay in the postseason and rushed for 181 yards - which is an NFL record for a QB in game - and 2 TDS as well as passed for 265 yards and another 2 scores. Just dominated that game.

He looked like the next elite quarterback in football. And then he just bottomed out.

Yes, but I'm not giving you bus fare to NY.

Yay, another thing false patriots are able to distract themselves of their own hypocrisy can get mad at. Some of these so called patriots need to learn what the word freedom means and that it is not forcing someone to do things you want because you are really a fascist at heart.

You mean like forcing people to set up safe spaces and give trigger warnings?

A bit of both. The first point is whether you agree with his interpretation that abuses are in fact taking place. I do not. The second point is that it is disrespectful toward what I feel the flag represents. While I agree he is free to do so, I and anyone and everyone is free to be critical of him doing so, especially if they do not agree with his reasoning for doing so. And given that sports are to war what porn is to sex for most humans, I'm not terribly surprised at the amount and type of criticism being directed at him, even if my own reaction amounts to rolling my eyes at the stupid person.

Precisely my position, I couldn't say it any better.

You mean like our new moral guardians who love to do everything they can to destroy someone who does or says something they don't like?

You're talking about that Milos guy right?

No.

I disagreed, but it requires some elaboration over a red X. To a certain extent, people in any line of work owe their efforts to the customer. That's true whether you are an NFL star or a hospital janitor. But when a person feels he is witness to immorality, evil, or some other issue requiring action, should he not take action, even at personal risk? If Kaepernick alienates the fan base to an extent that he becomes toxic as a player regardless of talent, then he will pay a heavy price for his choice. But that doesn't mean it's the wrong choice.

And which event did he witness? Last I heard slavery was not practiced in the majority of states and has been outlawed for ~150 years. If he witnessed any of that he looks good for his age.

Why are Gul and Shooter so upset that I am voting against welfare handouts to a NFL team? Are you guys really so wedded to a kids game that the idea of not giving an NFL team $1 billion upsets you?

You idiot, the bottom rung whites had power, that's why they weren't slaves.

I'm with you regarding taxpayer funded stadiums. I was responding to your first sentence.

The league shouldn't do anything about the gesture at all.

Also, I must've fatfingered the GFY. I meant to click "Fantasy World".

They had no power, anymore than people who live today in mobile home parks have power. Many of their families came over as indentured servants.

And many of them were racist as hell - toward blacks, Jews, Indians, the Irish, the French, the Spanish, the Italians, and anybody else they didn't like.

They had no power, anymore than people who live today in mobile home parks have power. Many of their families came over as indentured servants.

And many of them were racist as hell - toward blacks, Jews, Indians, the Irish, the French, the Spanish, the Italians, and anybody else they didn't like.

Colin Kaepernick, meet Henry Johnson

More than just time separates Johnson from Kaepernick. There is a vast gulf of character. Despite experiencing oppression that Kaepernick couldn’t imagine, Johnson enlisted to fight during his generation’s war. Despite his incredible physical prowess and our enemy’s direct attack on home soil, Kaepernick has chosen to sit out his generation’s conflict. He plays football instead.

Johnson served a nation that oppressed him. Kaepernick judges a nation that has enriched him. When Johnson donned the uniform of his nation, does any rational person believe that he was affirming Jim Crow or sanctioning lynchings? Isn’t it possible that a person can love his community and his country even when they fail to live up to their founding ideals?

Our nation was built — and, indeed, transformed in all the right ways — by men such as Henry Johnson. Kaepernick and those who think like him coast on Johnson’s sacrifice. Standing for the anthem isn’t an affirmation of America’s injustices. If it is, then we should all sit, because injustice will never entirely leave this great land.​

Johnson's outpost was attacked by at least 19 German soldiers. His gun jammed, so he pulled out a knife and started killing them until they ran away in terror.

He was awarded Frances highest medal for valor, the French Croix de Guerre avec Palme. Teddy Roosevelt said he was the bravest we had. But Democrats under Wilson controlled the army and didn't even give him a Purple Heart or a pension, despite 21 combat wounds. In 1919 Johnson bitched about the Army being racist. He's since been awarded the Purple Heart, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Medal of Honor.

Just put gturner and Dayton on ignore, then the thread starts to make sense.

Oh, slavery ended, so racial oppression is just gone with a poof? You're cribbing off Dayton's talking points.

My facepalm was due to the fact that the stadium issue has nothing to do with the topic. I do not favor taxpayer financed stadiums and look forward to the Chargers relocating to Los Angeles. But it has nothing to do with the stupidity of forced displays of patriotism at sporting events or whether players should be able to reject such rituals in protest.

Is there actual evidence that black people are being killed by police today more than in the past?

He has the right to express his views, I'm not denying him that. But there is a time & a place for everything. At the end of the day you are a member of a team, and sometimes you need to act like a member of that team and express your views at a later date - when your message can get out with more focus and less distraction. Otherwise, you look like a grandstanding classless prick and your message isn't taken at face value or importance. Hey, he's a kid - when he grows up he'll take a few minutes and ask himself "is this a dick move? Will this ricochet and bite me in the ass?" before he makes a statement in front of god & everybody.

That's a good point, if violence against innocent blacks is maintained at an acceptable historic level, then what is there to protest?

About as much evidence as black people are killing the fuck out of each other at a much higher rate. 24/7 media & social networking allow people more ability to hear what they want to hear.

For every black killed by the police in Chicago, the vast majority of whom were shooting at somebody at the time, there are 20 people who were shot and killed by Chicago thugs, gang-bangers, and drug dealers.