Kap or Riot?

Just a few seasons ago QB Collin Kaepernick was only a few yards away from leading The San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl Victory. He would fall just short but a very promising NFL career for Kap was just beginning…or so it would seem. Two years removed from starting in a Super Bowl Kap was sidelined for doing the right thing.  He did something that most people lack the courage to do. He took a stance against social injustice and the systemic racism issue that exists not only with law enforcement in his community or this country but around the entire world. I’ll never know what it’s like to be a black man in America, but I know one simple thing that does not take a genius to figure out. All of us are created equal, and nobody should ever live in fear due to the color of their skin. Kap began kneeling during the national anthem before NFL Football games using his platform to create change and would lose everything that the NFL had to offer due to simply standing up for what is right.

Now at 34 years old QB Collin Kaepernick has another chance to play in the NFL. This is likely his last chance. He has 8 scheduled tryouts with NFL teams. It took a man’s life in devastating fashion when George Floyd was brutally murdered in public by a so-called officer of the law. It took a man’s life for the commissioner of the NFL Roder Goodell and The President Of The United States to finally admit years later that Kap was right to kneel all along. After all, why stand up hand over heart for a banner that has failed you over and over? Collin would not be getting this final chance to play in the league if not for the tragic death of George Floyd and the NFL trying to save face because the league has finally admitted Kap was right from the beginning. If you think Kap is getting one final shot at making an NFL football team just because he is a good player your incredibly naive. It obviously should not have taken such a terrible tragedy for Collin Kaepernick to be given one last shot to play NFL Football. He should have never been tossed out of the league in the incredibly insensitive way he was, to begin with. That being said here we are.

Those are the exact circumstances that we now find ourselves in. It is due to unfortunate circumstances that Kap has 8 NFL Tryouts meaning 8 chances to be on an NFL roster for the 2020 NFL Season gets underway. No one can tell me with a straight face that Kap is not a better QB than over half of the backup QBs in the league and there are most likely at least a couple of teams that he’s still more than good enough to start for. He may no longer be a franchise QB but he clearly still has the talent to be in and belong in the NFL for at least a few seasons. Will NFL teams do right by Kap? Will just one NFL Football team do right by Collin Kaepernick? I hope so. This is not just about football anymore. It should be but sadly it is not. I get a terrible headache when people say that there shouldn’t be protests and riots. Yes, peaceful protests on the surface seem like they would achieve more than a riot. I won’t say a word on what is right or wrong in that regard due to the simple fact that I will never know what it’s like to be a black man in a world full of bigotry and needless hate.

I come from a military family yet I will not put my hand over my heart nor stand up for the national anthem until I see real positive change within our communities across the states of America because I would be standing up for something that does not yet exist: An Equal nation under one banner. Upon reading this many people will tell me what I should and shouldn’t say or do due to other military families and what the American flag means to them. Well, guess what? The veterans that fought for our freedom fought for the freedom of speech. Many of our veterans also went to war fighting for equality… expecting to come back to a country that would finally welcome them with open arms. That has not happened yet. Now Collin Kaepernick is fighting for his rightful place in the NFL. Should the NFL exclude him again for no reason there will be peaceful protests and there will be riots. That is simply a fact. I think that if Kap is excluded again from the NFL then the community is more than within their rights to fight back against a league that has been known to discriminate over and over and over again.

I’m well aware that this article will anger quite a few close-minded people. That being said it is my intent and my hope that this article gets people thinking more than anything about what is right and what is wrong. It’s that simple and if Kap does not make an NFL team this year that would obviously be very wrong.  It is time that the people of the U.S. and around the world start simply following the golden rule. Treat others how you’d like to be treated. I truly believe that God doesn’t see color. God sees all the people of the earth he created equally, and so should our governments and our leaders and every member of law enforcement. If Kap can put his NFL career on the line to do and say the right thing despite it unjustly costing him everything at the time then the least I can do is write about what I believe is right as well in my work as a journalist, columnist, and author of novels. He lost years of getting to be an NFL QB for no reason. So be it if I lose a few readers over finally doing the right thing by writing about how I feel regarding Collin Kaepernick’s journey in life as well as in the NFL.

Malcolm Jenkins and Chris Long (two members of The Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl Team in 2018) have shown me the best example of what America should look like and they didn’t have to say a single word to me despite being activists against social injustice for years in Philadelphia and other communities around the world. This picture of the two should show everyone who sees it the America that I want to live in and the America that I believe that everyone should want to live in. I pray daily that someday soon all of us will live in equal communities around the world regardless of the color of one’s skin. Hopefully, that time is soon. Hopefully someday soon it is reality and not just wishful thinking.

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