The NFL season starts in two weeks, and yet Colin Kaepernick the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who spent the 2016 season kneeling through the national anthem to protest racism and police killings of black Americans still doesnt have a job.

That has sparked debate about whether Kaepernicks protests are the reason for his continued unemployment, with most evidence suggesting thats the case. Its rare for a quarterback who performed as well as Kaepernick did last year to remain without even a backup job , and NFL owners have openly worried about backlash from fans who oppose his message.

But as that debate rages on, so do the killings Kaepernick sought to highlight .

Police and law enforcement officials killed at least 223 black Americans in the year after Kaepernick first began to protest, according to a HuffPost analysis of data compiled by The Washington Post and The Guardian .

Kaepernicks protest became public after a reporter noticed him sitting during the anthem before a preseason game on Aug. 26, 2016. But he had actually started the practice two weeks earlier, before the Niners first preseason game on Aug. 14.