Colin or Con? Kaepernick Made No “Sacrifice”

Merriam-Webster: “sacrifice: a : destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else.”

Nike, as you know, is featuring an ad campaign with Colin Kaepernick using the tagline, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

Let’s be clear: Colin Kaepernick voluntarily opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49’ers in 2017. 

He had a market reason: Under his $160 million contract, only $39 million was guaranteed. He had already made most of the guaranteed money. 

He was coming off a decent year in 2016—a QB rating of 90.7, a 59.2% completion statistic, and passing for 2,241 yards. These numbers put him in the middle of the pack of starting NFL QBs.

Opting out of a contract is not a sacrifice. It’s a business decision.

Whether NFL owners colluded not to make him an offer because of his leading role in calling attention to racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem is a separate issue. If it happened, this occurred after he opted out of his contract and became a free agent.

Arbitrator Stephen Burbank (UPenn Law School professor) has seen enough evidence to move the matter to a hearing.

If Nike and Kaepernick are going to play the heavy-handed sacrifice card, let’s also see if Kaepernick is being paid for the splashy ad. Does anyone think that Kaepernick did this for free?

And NFL player Chris Long adds this insight: Nike has taken a positive step forward by making Kaepernick the face of its campaign, but Nike also has a record of abusing child labor in southeast Asian countries with poor monitoring practices. 

Pat Tillman made a genuine sacrifice. The NFL player left a lucrative career, enlisted in the Army, and lost his life in a friendly fire attack in Afghanistan. 

His widow was recently quoted saying that her husband “would be the first to kneel.”

Yesterday, she said that she doesn’t want her husband to be used for anti-Kaepernick stunts. 

This post isn’t a stunt. It’s meant to signify the difference between sacrifice and seeking financial gain.