San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick remained seated during the national anthem of last night’s game.
Every so often there seems to be a story like this that comes out, bringing up the old question of whether or not athletes should make political stands. Colin Kaepernick sitting through the national anthem reopens the conversation.
Here’s the picture:
https://twitter.com/barstooltweets/status/769535944756264960
Based on Kaepernick’s twitter page, you may believe that there was reasoning behind this. He certainly had his:
Colin Kaepernick explains why he decided to stay seated during the national anthem. https://t.co/D61f3YwbIr pic.twitter.com/d4HNNgSyP0
— theScore (@theScore) August 27, 2016
The 49ers released a statement which included the following.
“The national anthem is and always will be a special part of the pregame ceremony … It is an opportunity to honor our country and reflect on the great liberties we are afforded as its citizens. In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose to participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem.”
The issue that many sports fans have is realizing that athletes are people too. Like we are, athletes are entitled to rights and an opinion, which includes not standing up for the national anthem.
Personally, I think it’s very disrespectful to not stand for the anthem. There are other outlets to vent your frustrations or displeasures with social issues. I just don’t see how not standing helps anything.
Kaepernick isn’t the first and he probably won’t be the last athlete to not stand for the anthem.
As for the game performance itself, he went 2-6 for 14 yards, which doesn’t necessarily jump off the page at you. If he continues to play like that, he’ll be exactly where he was during the anthem when the season starts: sitting on the bench.
