Colin Kaepernick desperately wants to be a ‘slave’ again

Colin Kaepernick is a father and a published author, but recent comments suggest that his new phase in life hasn’t stopped him from longing for the good old days back on the NFL’s “plantation.”

The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback turned racial justice activist appeared recently on “CBS Mornings” with his partner, Nessa Diab, to promote their new children’s book, “We Are Free, You and Me.” The couple wrote the book to bring the work they do in their Know Your Rights camp to a younger audience. The book says kids have the right to be free, be healthy, be brilliant, be safe, be loved, be courageous, be alive, be trusted, be educated, and know their rights. The hosts seemed genuinely excited about the project, but the book probably won’t be read as widely as Dr. Seuss or Aesop’s Fables in 30 years.

People should be able to go to a game without overpaid and underinformed athletes lecturing them on whatever topic is trending on X.

Ironically, the most interesting part of the interview had nothing to do with the couple or their new project. At one point, Gayle King noted that Kaepernick is still training every morning, hoping to play pro football again.

It’s normal for an unsigned player to stay in shape in case he gets a call from a team looking to fill a roster spot due to injury. What doesn’t happen every day is watching a former player who compared playing football to slavery beg to be put back on his old “plantation.”

For those who don’t remember, Colin Kaepernick compared the NFL Scouting Combine to a slave auction, with black players playing the role of slaves and white general managers and coaches functioning like slave owners. Kaepernick also wore a shirt that said “Kunta Kinte” — one of the main characters from the miniseries “Roots” — to an NFL workout.

These comparisons trivialize the brutal reality of slavery, but they also showed how far Kaepernick would go to make a political statement and trash his former employer. He seems to believe the NFL only cares about using black men’s bodies for financial gain but won’t let them speak out against social injustice. That is his right. But I don’t understand why an “emancipated” activist who escaped such oppressive conditions would willingly subject himself to life back on the plantation.

Waking up every morning hoping your old “master” — or one of his friends — would put you back out in the field is a strange use of time for a revolutionary and freedom fighter. What kind of man fights to escape the bondage of a multimillion-dollar contract only to volunteer himself for additional years of servitude? I guess the type of man who wears a “Kunta Kinte” T-shirt.

But then again, Kaepernick is also a man who bashes capitalism one minute and signs a multimillion-dollar deal with Nike the next, earning the company billions along the way. Like the co-founders of Black Lives Matter, Kaepernick realizes that free enterprise is so powerful that even Marxists can find a market for their silly ideas and earn quite a living. It’s clear that BLM ultimately stood for “buying large mansions.” Like many champagne socialists and limousine liberals, professional revolutionaries have enough money to shield themselves from the consequences of their bad ideas.

Ultimately, Kaepernick is far less influential today than he was when he first started protesting police brutality during the national anthem in 2016. Many athletes also started to kneel, not out of deep and principled conviction but because they fell victim to peer pressure. Anyone who doubts my claim probably doesn’t remember that by the time the George Floyd protests took off in 2020, it was controversial for an athlete to stand for the national anthem.

The beauty of sports is that they bring together people from all different walks of life to support a common cause. Injecting partisan politics into the heart of professional athletics is bad for society, especially when players are only allowed to express certain beliefs. The reaction to the pro-family comments from Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker earlier this year is a useful reminder that our cultural tastemakers are only interested in outspoken athletes who share their politics.

Ultimately, people should be able to go to a game without overpaid and underinformed athletes lecturing them on whatever topic is trending on X. Colin Kaepernick is obviously free to continue his fight for “liberation,” whether through his books or his camps. I just find it strange that a self-described abolitionist is so eager to become a “slave” again.