THIS BOLDEST OF STANCES IS SHAMING OUR BLAND STARS
THE quarterback who wanted a simple act of protest in order to start a national conversation about race and justice suddenly found the whole world talking. It has been a lonely road to recognition for him.
In the 12 months since Colin Kaepernick crossed a rarely breached line — kneeling when the national anthem was played before an NFL game, in protest against a string of police killings of unarmed black citizens in the United States — the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback has discovered how it feels to be ostracised.
He should have been back in the colours of one of the sides who considered signing him, when the new NFL season started this month, and the Baltimore Ravens came closest. But nothing was to materialise. It is hard to believe that anything but his decision to break rank and protest made this so.
Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti announced it was necessary to ‘speak to fans and sponsors’ before hiring him. That was the same Bisciotti who stuck with former running back Ray Rice, who punched and knocked out his girlfriend, and linebacker Ray Lewis, who stood trial for murder.
Kaepernick was drifting into the margins of sport until Donald Trump opened the debate that the 29-year-old always wanted on Friday night, declaring that players who had knelt or raised fists for The StarSpangled Banner following perceived racial injustice were ‘sons of bitches’ and suggesting they should be fired by team owners.
A tide of indignation in the three days since has seen more than 20 players kneeling at Wembley before the Jacksonville Jaguars’ victory over the Ravens on Sunday and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell declaring he was ‘proud’ to have witnessed the defiance displayed at each one of that day’s NFL matches.
This is rich vindication for Kaepernick, who has amply demonstrated that playing elite sport and having a belief system are not mutually exclusive. Those who have already expressed admiration for his stance have ranged from Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama to Serena Williams.
To witness sport provoking debate and change is to yearn for a spirit of Kaepernick within these shores and, dare it be said, even within the ranks of the buttoned-up and choreographed Premier League, where every word is weighed.
Let’s just say Harry Kane’s thoughts on Brexit were not nuanced when he was asked about it on the day after the vote while on England duty last summer.
‘I don’t think that any of us know too much about it to comment on it, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens,’ Kane replied.
In fairness, to express an opinion is to risk being the class swot where British football is concerned. One Premier League player told me that it risks ridicule. ‘No one will talk about it because we get shot down,’ he said. ‘We’re not supposed to have an opinion.’
If the world at large doesn’t shoot down a footballer’s opinions, then the world of sport certainly will. Ex-Wolves and QPR midfielder Karl Henry found himself accused by Stan Collymore of being a class traitor a few years back, after he said on Twitter, during Jeremy Paxman’s interviews of David Cameron and Ed Miliband, that he was a Conservative.
Trump has dug deeper and deeper in the past day. At one point he retweeted a picture which carried the label ‘BOYCOTT!’ over the NFL logo. And then came rich proof that those who play sport can speak with eloquence about the world around them.
‘Men who have their constitutional rights — black, white, or whatever — taking a knee, and you call us “SOB”?’ said Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman. ‘Am I American? Am I here fighting for the home of the free? Am I really free? I have to look at myself and think sometimes.’