NFL immortalizes Kaepernick

Colin Kaepernick remains on the outside without an NFL job, which is a good thing.

It means his push for justice will live forever.

History forgets cowards. It forgets those who bend to the moral failings of their times.

History also corrects the record. Muhammad Ali was booed and jeered most everywhere he went. Bill Russell was considered a troublemaker. Tommie Smith and John Carlos received death threats.

Today, those men are heroes. Those who opposed them have long been forgotten.

It will be the same with Kaepernick and those who stand against him.

Considering this makes me wonder why no NFL team president or general manager has snapped up the quarterback exiled for demanding more respectful interactions between police and the minority communities they serve, the young black man who gained the attention of the world by taking the advice of a Green Beret and kneeling during the national anthem.

All it would take is courage. Think of the effect it had on Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers executive who plucked Jackie Robinson from the Negro Leagues to break baseball’s color barrier.

Rickey is remembered as a hero. He’s as much of a part of the Robinson story as stolen bases and turn-the-othercheek dignity.

You think there weren’t threats from simple-minded bigots, saying they’d never again root for the Dodgers?

(As if anyone would willingly accept money from racists to do or not do anything. That would scrape the depths of the crevasses of cowardice that only the spineless could fit to reach.)

Those threats were washed away by a sea of black fans and the white men and women of good conscience who stood with them.

Those threats were washed away by exciting and winning baseball.

Those threats were washed away by history.

If I were in charge of some last-place organization looking for a shot of excitement and energy, I’d scoop him up for those reasons alone.

Think of the spike in jersey sales.

Think of the fan engagement. Think of the wins!

Or think of history.

If I were NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, I’d be thinking of history.

History remembers Kenesaw Mountain Landis as a loser who was afraid of competition. During his tenure as the commissioner of big-league baseball, no black players were signed.

Rickey made the move to bring along Robinson after Landis died.

Had Landis used his influence to make sure the sport integrated – or better yet to have brought in some of the best Negro League franchises in their entirety – he’d have a different legacy.

Goodell could reshape his perception and reinvigorate his sport by getting Kaepernick on an NFL roster.

Right now, he’s the guy who handed out an uneven suspension in a fair fight.

Goodell suspended a black player, Myles Garrett, for going upside the head of a white player, Mason Rudolph, with a helmet.

Rudolph tried to take Garrett’s helmet off in a scrum at the end of a violent game. He failed. Then, in a moment that will go down in don’t-start-nothingwon’t-be-nothing history, Garrett snatched Rudolph’s helmet off and showed him what happens when you pick a fight you don’t have any business picking.

If Garrett was wrong, then so was Rudolph.

Suspend them both or let the whole thing go.

Otherwise, it leaves a huge chunk of your labor force and fan base wondering whether you care about them or the public perception of them.

How long before they start to check out?

A little behind-the-scenes pressure to get Kaepernick onto a roster could make all of those types of questions go away.

Of course, daily considerations will always weigh heavily on the minds of the men who make these decisions. Maybe Nike will sway them. Next month (just in time for Christmas!) the sneaker company is releasing a Kaepernick signature shoe.

How much would you like to bet it’s one of the fastest-selling sneakers in history?

All of this remains in play as long as Colin Kaepernick is on the outside without an NFL job.

His push for justice will make him a hero forever.