ESPN is reporting that Colin Kaepernick will stand for the national anthem during the next NFL season after refusing to do so throughout the last one.
Per ESPN:
Kaepernick no longer wants his method of protest to detract from the positive change he believes has been created, sources told ESPN. He also said the amount of national discussion on social inequality— as well as support from other athletes nationwide, including NFL and NBA players — affirmed the message he was trying to deliver.
That’s interesting, because just last season Kaepernick declared he simply could not “stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”
So what’s changed?
Since Kaepernick does not seem to believe that problem was solved in the last six months, or that the country no longer “oppresses black people and people of color,” his pathetic attempt to justify the flip-flop is absolute nonsense meant to explain away a cowardly cop-out.
If you believe in something as deeply as he claimed to, either be consistent or admit your mistakes.
After a disappointing season, Kaepernick is now opting out of his contract and heading back on the market as a free agent. He knows as well as anyone that his deeply unpopular decision to sit out the anthem was a liability for any team interested in signing him. In fact, many people speculated that the #BoycottNFL protests organized in opposition to Kaepernick’s anthem stunt accounted for a chunk of the NFL’s ratings drop over the course of the season.
Colin Kaepernick is no hero. In fact, we now know he’s nothing more than a spineless multimillionaire who sold out his cause when his career was on the line. For all of the sanctimonious posturing, Kaepernick turned out to be just another craven opportunist, a breed that is in no short supply among “social justice” activists.
“To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way,” the quarterback said last August. “There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
It looks like the decision is “bigger than football” when his career is okay, but not so much when it isn’t. If, as he claimed last year, it would be “selfish” on his part to “look the other way” amidst racial injustice, I have to admit Kaepernick is right about one thing.
He’s as selfish as it gets.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
