Imagine being so wrong about something that even a professional sports team scolds you in public. That’s the boat that part-time activist and full-time grievance-monger Shaun King found himself in Thursday after spreading a rumor about out-of-work quarterback Colin Kaepernick and the Philadelphia Eagles.
The owner of the Eagles said he wouldn’t hire Colin because of his anthem protest, but hired a white player who called black people “nigger”
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017
“The owner of the Eagles [Jeffrey Lurie] said he wouldn’t hire Colin because of his anthem protest, but hired a white player who called black people ‘nigger,'” King said on Twitter.
The last part is true. Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper was taped a few years ago at a concert saying, “I will fight every nigger here.” Good luck defending that, Eagles fans.
The first part of King’s tweet, however, appears to be a straight load of nonsense.
Kaepernick, who is black, achieved notoriety last year on account of his protest of the national anthem. When he still played for the San Francisco 49ers, he got into the habit of taking a knee during the recitation of the anthem. He explained that he was protesting police brutality and, “a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”
Now Kaepernick is out of work, and King is telling people the Eagles are trying to keep it that way. The only problem here is that there is nothing to back King’s claim, according to numerous sportswriters and the Philadelphia Eagles themselves.
“[T]his Lurie-Kap thing didn’t happen the way you’re framing it,” nj.com’s Joe Giglio said in response to King.
His colleague, Eliot Shorr-Parks, added elsewhere, “I was at the Lurie press conference, and have read that story, and this tweet is insanely unfair and wrong.”
The Eagles themselves eventually published a transcript of the press conference, which showed the NFL owner never said he wouldn’t hire Kaepernick because of the anthem protest.
Lurie said the Eagles weren’t particularly interested in hiring Kaepernick because they were already “completely happy with our quarterback situation.”
He also said of social justice activists and things like the anthem protest, “Anybody who wants to do proactive things, to try to reverse social injustice, I’m all in favor of. It has to be respectful. It certainly has to respect the military and the people that serve, the women and men that serve our country, emergency responders, whoever that is.”
A far cry from how some have characterized the press conference.
“Your recent claims are entirely unfair and inaccurate,” the team tweeted at King.
King refuses to admit any error on his part. In fact, he kept after it Thursday afternoon, ranting online to anyone who would listen that the Eagles owner had indeed said something very racist. He also tweeted a great deal about how much he likes Kaepernick.
