The NBA legend, who once faced withering criticism after he converted to Islam and changed his name, argues that NFL players need to step up in solidarity and defend an outspoken black quarterback fighting for social justice and a job.
The swirling turmoil around whether or not NFL teams are reluctant to sign Colin Kaepernick because of his outspoken politics reminds me of a restaurant near my home called The Quiet Woman, which features a headless woman. The name, common among English pubs, honors a 15th-century literary character who had her head cut off because of her religious beliefs. This preference, mostly in the NFL, for “headless” athletes who remain quiet about politics during one of the most tumultuous times in American history is a throwback to an era when athletes were expected to “shut up and stick to sports.”
Those days should be gone. This ’50s-style, Father Knows Best paternalism does a disservice to players by hindering their First Amendment rights to join political discourse, but it also does a disservice to America by preventing the public from hearing all sides of political and social issues.
Some think that Colin is being punished by the NFL for taking a knee during the national anthem, or for sporting a magnificently defiant Afro, or for his recent trip to Ghana to find his “personal independence” by finding out where his ancestors came from, or for his Fourth of July tweet: “How can we truly celebrate independence on a day that intentionally robbed our ancestors of theirs?”
Rep. Cedric Richmond from Louisiana, who is also chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, argues that Colin’s treatment is unfair: “[T]he fact that he spoke up means he’s a great person and he spoke his conscience. I don’t think we should penalize people in this country for doing that.”
As I look around the NFL at backup quarterbacks, it seems that his talent is superior to a lot of people who are on teams already. And nothing in his words or actions is groundbreaking, nothing that activist athletes haven’t said before. Yet the backlash against him seems more intense than with other outspoken athletes, like Serena Williams and LeBron James.
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