What was his objective?
He never said. That was one difficult part.
Hours after the San Francisco 49ers’ millionaire quarterback grabbed a spotlight the other day and shined it on himself, protesting perceived police brutality against black and brown Americans, a USA Today sportswriter lavishly praised Colin Kaepernick’s “courage.”
Jarrett Bell did not feel obliged to explain how the player was demonstrating bravery by sitting on the bench during a pre-game rendition of our National Anthem.
Afterward, the player, half white, half black, was widely hailed as a hero. For what?
The player, not armed with any unique information, spoke in generalities.
“I’ll continue to sit,” the player said. “I’ll continue to stand with the people who are being oppressed. This is something that has to change. When there’s significant change – and I feel like that flag represents what it’s supposed to represent, and this country is representing people the way it’s supposed to – I’ll stand.”
Of course the 28-year-old Mr. Kaepernick has a right to express himself on that hot-button social justice subject, especially since he is well-known to readers of sports pages.
For his most recent game last Thursday, he altered his strategy, going to one knee during the Star-Spangled Banner after surviving broad booing.
Was that a concession or sign of forgetfuness?
Neither noticeably articulate, nor scholarly, Mr. Kaepernick spoke for 20 minutes after his first sitdown game without saying anything worth remembering.
As the owner of a $126 million contract, one would have expected more.
Thanks to notoriously incurious sports reporters, we do not know whether Mr. Kaepernick is an activist or merely a talker. Without context, it is not possible to know whether the player is an attention-seeking chap or a well-intentioned pursuer of justice. If the latter, what is he going to do about it?
Has he devised a strategy?
Then what?
Maddening generalities that only serve the player are not likely to motivate a willing country.
