Acclaimed New York Daily News columnist and activist Shaun King announced that he will boycott the NFL this season. He reached his decision due to the league’s obvious blackballing of former San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick.
The 29-year-old signal-caller has struggled to find work after he kneeled during the “The Star-Spangled Banner” each week last season to protest injustice and police brutality against minorities in America.
“I won’t be watching the NFL this year,” King wrote.” I can’t, in good conscience, support this league, with many of its pro-Trump owners, as it blacklists my friend and brother Colin Kaepernick for taking a silent, peaceful stance against injustice and police brutality in America. It’s disgusting and has absolutely nothing to do with football and everything to do with penalizing a brilliant young man for the principled stance he took last season.
Kaepernick and his representatives recently had discussions with the Seattle Seahawks. However, the team ultimately decided to sign former Rams’ backup Austin Davis over Kaepernick. In five NFL seasons, Davis has rarely gotten onto the field. He’s played 13 games and amassed 2548 yards passing with 13 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and five fumbles.
In 12 games last season alone, Kaepernick amassed 2,241 yards, 16 TDs and four INTs. His 90.7 QB rating put him above heralded starters such as Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Joe Flacco, Carson Palmer and Jameis Winston. That’s despite playing for one of the least-talented teams in the entire NFL.
Over six NFL seasons, Kaepernick has passed for 12,271 yards, 72 TDs and 30 INTs, in addition to rushing for 2,300 yards. According to Jason Reid of The Undefeated, Kaepernick has the fourth-best touchdowns-to-interceptions ration in NFL history.
Because he dared to speak out against injustice in America, NFL teams are avoiding him like the plague. New York Giants owner John Mara admitted that the Giants have not considered signing Kaepernick due to threats from bigoted fans.
“All my years being in the league, I never received more emotional mail from people than I did about that issue,” John Mara said. “If any of your players ever do that, we are never coming to another Giants game. It wasn’t one or two letters. It was a lot. It’s an emotional, emotional issue for a lot of people, more so than any other issue I’ve run into.”
This is the same Giants team that re-signed kicker Josh Brown to a two-year, $4 million deal despite an arrest over allegations of domestic abuse. Brown was later released by the Giants after journals of his confessions of beating his wife were made public.
According to NFLArrest.com, since the year 2000, there have been more than 450 arrests of NFL players due to drugs, alcohol, domestic abuse and assault. Many of those players have been welcomed back to their teams with open arms after they were bailed out of prison. Those who were released from their teams often were signed by other teams.
Kaepernick has never been arrested. He hasn’t been accused of sexual assault like Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger. He’s never threatened to shoot up a club with an AK-47, like Chad Kelly, who was drafted by the Denver Broncos this year. Even the Cincinnati Bengals’ Adam Jones has managed to stay employed despite at least 10 arrests throughout his career because crimes are often forgiven by owners, front offices and fans of the NFL.
For the record, I’m not suggesting that athletes who make mistakes should not be given a second chance. I don’t expect every athlete to be a choir boy in order to suit up. I still find it amazing that violent crimes or cheating can be so easily forgiven, but standing up (or kneeling) against injustice is just too much.
Those who have followed my column for a while know that I began my own personal boycott of the NFL after the Rams were allowed to depart St. Louis under the shadiest of circumstances. The Oakland Raiders’ and San Diego Chargers’ relocation approvals did nothing to endear me to the league and its greedy owners.
That said, I wholeheartedly support King’s boycott. If every owner in the NFL is willing to turn their backs on Kaepernick, then the people who stand up for his beliefs should turn their backs on the league. Kaepernick may not be Tom Brady on the field, but he’s certainly better than Davis, nearly all of the league’s backups and a few of the bum disease-afflicted starters.
It’s still early and there’s a chance that Kaepernick could be signed. Still, it’s sad (but not surprising) to see 32 owners cave-in to bigotry.
Superman is super scared
Speaking of bum disease, “Superman” Adonis Stevenson continued his campaign against competitive fights by knocking out Andrzej Fonfara in just two rounds Saturday night.
Since winning the WBC light heavyweight title in 2013, Stevenson has steered clear of top competition (aka Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward) and has taken plenty of fights that nobody wanted to see or bothered to watch.
Stevenson seemingly has all the tools to be a bona fide superstar. He boxes well, moves well and has dynamite power. At 39-years-old, his clock is ticking. If he doesn’t fight Ward, Kovalev or an exciting top contender soon, he will go down as one of the biggest wastes of talent in recent memory.
Big3 gaining buzz
As the NBA season winds down (it could be all over sooner than we thought), Ice Cube’s Big 3 Basketball League is gaining some buzz. When it was first announced, I thought it would be a bust. However, Cube has landed a TV deal with FoxSports and signed numerous retired stars such as Allen Iverson, Chauncey Billups, Jason Williams, Mike Bibby, Corey Maggette, Larry Hughes and more.
Love it or hate it, the Warriors and Cavaliers Finals matchup is generating plenty of basketball buzz. So is the upcoming NBA Draft due to the Celtics owning the top pick and the potential landing spots of Lonzo (and LaVar) Ball.
This is the perfect timing for the Big3 league to launch. Hopefully the product will live up to the hype on the court. After all, who doesn’t want to see “The Answer” vs. “White Chocolate” a few more times.
Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @IshmaelSistrunk
