QUOTE OF THE DAY: Kaepernick ‘Sacrificing Everything’

Q

An Ebony cover story about former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, published Wednesday, recalled the slogan from his famous Nike advertising campaign.

THE QUOTE

The hagiographic feature described the opening scene of an upcoming Netflix biopic series about Kaepernick, co-created with filmmaker Ava DuVernay, as “reminiscent of the quarterback’s 2018 Nike ‘Dream Crazy’ ad, with its slogan, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

According to Ebony, Kaepernick “commands the screen” in the scene “with his iconic Afro and focused brown eyes” and “his tall frame, dressed in all black and exuding a “Matrix” vibe.”

SACRIFICING EVERYTHING?

Kaepernick told Ebony, “I am still up at 5 a.m. training five, six days a week making sure I’m prepared to take a team to a Super Bowl again. That’s not something I will ever let go of.”

  • He has not played in the NFL since the 2016 season, when he knelt from the San Francisco 49ers bench during the national anthem to protest racial injustice in America, launching a movement.
  • Kaepernick accused the NFL of blackballing him for his activism, and won a confidential settlement from the league over the grievance in 2019.
  • Later that year, he blew off a high-profile workout the NFL tried to set up for him.

Amid the ruins of his NFL dreams, Kaepernick has built his iconic status on the left into an activist empire.

MEANWHILE

Journalist Katie Couric revealed in her forthcoming memoir that late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, another progressive icon, regarded Kaepernick’s national anthem protests with Trump-like scorn, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

  • “[The protests show] contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life,” Ginsburg said in a 2016 interview that Couric admitted to editing to “protect” Ginsburg.
  • Ginsburg also called the protests “terrible” and “dumb and disrespectful” and the activists “stupid” and “arrogant.”
By We'll Do It Live