NFL must now get Kaepernick

The NFL must finally face up to its social responsibility. Committing Kaepernick would be a first step. The SPORT1 commentary.

How right Colin Kaepernick was.

Almost four years ago, the then quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers started in the preseason with his silent protest on one knee while playing the US national anthem.

“I will not stand up and demonstrate pride in a flag that oppresses black and colored people. There are bodies in the streets and people are getting away with murder.” That sound familiar?

If things weren’t so bad, one could almost laugh at the irony that the same year that Kaepernick started his protest, with Donald Trump, racism and ignorance entered the White House and (again) the middle of US society.

In the course of the violent death of George Floyd, caused by a policeman, it is impressively illustrated how big the social problems in the USA are.

Despite his obvious intellectual weaknesses, Trump is a master at playing on the fears of the white population and has thus, since taking office, reinforced the divisions in the “Land of the free”.

In the early stages, this included condemning Kaepernick as a “son of a bitch”, among other things, because he dared to peacefully exercise his right to protest and freedom of demonstration.

This is exactly the kind of protest that conservatives are now suddenly calling for in the face of the riots in almost all major US cities – and which Trump recently loudly celebrated with (white) opponents of the Corona restrictions in Michigan who are equipped with automatic weapons.

This is where the NFL comes in. It’s no secret that Kaepernick ended up on the blacklist of arch-conservative team owners after his contract expired and has been out of a job ever since. With his protest he also brought into focus the narrow-mindedness of the most successful sports league in the world with about 70 percent black players. The gentlemen who are so concerned about their image do not like that at all.

Since then something has changed, the boss of the 49ers recently donated one million dollars to organisations working for social change, but things are far from being all right in football country.

The “Rooney Rule”, which was supposed to bring minorities into coaching and managerial positions, has failed in its current form, the players still have hardly any say and so on.

It is time for a very clear sign: an NFL team must sign Kaepernick.

To put it bluntly: from a sporting point of view, this no longer makes sense at this point in time – not at all. Kaepernick hasn’t played an NFL game for three and a half years, the now 32-year-old won three of his last 19 starts, his media-effective workout in Atlanta last year was average at best.

But: It is no longer about the sport! The NFL has a tremendous appeal in the sports-mad USA, not least in comparison to politics.

In the face of burning cities, curfews and shots at journalists, the league must finally face up to its social responsibility.

A deal for Kaepernick would give the oppressed the feeling of having a voice – even if only symbolically at first.

Moreover, it would be a clear sign to the oppressors and the silent white masses to remember that patriotism is not blind obedience, but the fight for justice for all and against discrimination of any kind.

This is not only true of the USA, by the way. The signal effect worldwide would be enormous, not least in Germany, where, one year after the murder of Walter Lübcke, we see almost daily how dangerous racism is spreading into the middle of society.

For many of us, sport is the shining flame in an often all too dark world. The NFL must seize this opportunity. We can only hope that one team will have the courage