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Oct 6, 2016; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers outside linebacker Eli Harold (58), quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) and free safety Eric Reid (35) kneel in protest during the playing of the national anthem before a NFL game against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Colin Kaepernick’s iconic and controversial national anthem protests. Kaepernick began taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem before games, protesting police brutality and systemic racism against Black Americans.
As the sports world remembers Kaepernick’s protests, prominent right-wing sports commentator Clay Travis had some harsh words for Kaepernick, calling him a “moron.”
Kaepernick’s Protest
Kaepernick first took a knee during the national anthem before a 49ers preseason game in August 2016, protesting police brutality and systemic racism against Black Americans. The star quarterback had initially sat on the bench during the anthem before changing to a kneeling position as a gesture he considered to be more respectful.
The move was intentional and calculated, designed to spark a national conversation about an issue he believed the country was overlooking. And it did exactly that.
The protest immediately became a source of controversy. Politicians and fans condemned the gesture as unpatriotic, while supporters applauded Kaepernick for being willing to put his career on the line for what he believed in. By the end of the season, Kaepernick was out of the NFL, with teams refusing to sign him. That eventually led to a lawsuit in which Kaepernick alleged that he had been illegally blackballed by the league.
Kaepernick never returned to the NFL despite making multiple efforts to revive his career, but his protest has remained one of the most iconic and memorable moments in sports history, regardless of whether you agreed with it.
‘Colin Kaepernick was a moron’
Kaepernick’s protest was so effective in drawing attention that it is still eliciting outrage even a decade later.
On the 10th anniversary of Kaepernick’s national anthem protests, senior columnist Jerry Brewer of The Athletic praised Kaepernick.
“In modern athlete activism, Kaepernick stands alone. He is far from beloved, but his stance is aging well. The prominent athletes of the past 10 years have mishandled what they should’ve treated as a precious legacy. With their conceit, the clout chasers have turned his courage into a template without asking what made the original worth copying,” Brewer wrote for The Athletic .
Clay Travis, however, was not a fan of this opinion as he called The Athletic “total trash” and Kaepernick a “moron.”
“The Athletic is total trash. Colin Kaepernick was a moron who falsely alleged cops were regularly murdering black men, which led to cops being demonized, which led to thousands more murdered black kids. Data doesn’t lie,” Travis wrote in a post on X .
It’s not clear what data Travis is referring to as he did not provide it as part of his argument.
The post ‘Colin Kaepernick was a moron’: Clay Travis does not hold back appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions .
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