Football fans boo Castro supporters

In Miami Sunday, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started versus the Miami Dolphins. Two days before the game, and hours before news of the former dictator’s death got out, the Miami Herald published an article titled “Unrepentant hypocrite Colin Kaepernick defends Fidel Castro.”

In a call about the forthcoming game, Herald sports columnist Armando Salguero had asked Kaepernick about a Malcolm X t-shirt that he wore depicting the meeting of the Nation of Islam leader and Fidel Castro.

The outspoken Kaepernick has pointedly refused to stand for the singing of the National Anthem because of America’s shoddy treatment of blacks and other minorities. He tried to dodge questions about why he spoke out about oppression while wearing that particular t-shirt, but Salguero persisted.

So Kaepernick praised Malcolm X for having an “open mind” by meeting with Castro, praised the educational system of Cuba for producing high literacy rates, and excused many family-destroying aspects of Cuba’s police state because American states have high rates of black incarceration.

This did not go over well in Miami, home of the largest Cuban diaspora, on the weekend of Fidel Castro’s death. Kaepernick was greeted with a loud chorus of Bronx cheers. He responded at a press conference after by saying that he may have got trapped into a “false narrative” and that in praising some aspects of Cuban achievement, he had not meant to endorse oppression and state sponsored terror.

On the same day, in Toronto, the Canadian Football League was holding its Super Bowl equivalent called the Grey Cup. Before the game at BMO Field, generally popular Liberal Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had recorded some uncontroversial “Go CFL!” remarks.

The prime minister had also released a statement upon learning of the death of Castro that many interpreted as fawning. People mocked his words viciously on the social media site Twitter with the hash tag #trudeulogies and some of the snark bubbled up into the Canadian press.

Because of the timing, Trudeau’s canned remarks did not go over so well with the fans of he Calgary Stampeders and the Ottawa Redblacks. Canadian channel TVO host Steve Paikin was at the game and got an earful of the fans’ temporary distaste for Trudeau.

“Well that was interesting. @JustinTrudeau video before the game gets loud boos @bmofield. Guy behind me says ‘Castro was a dictator!'” Paikin tweeted Sunday night.

The surprised TV host did not use the hash tag #trudeaulogies.