The Kneel Heard 'Round The World

If you didn't know who Colin Kaepernick was when he led the vaunted 49ers team of 2012 to a Superbowl appearance, I'd bet you know him now. The free agent quarterback continues to be the centerpiece of one of the most polarizing storylines across the NFL. A storyline which began almost a year ago, when he chose to kneel during the playing of the National Anthem in an early August preseason game. Following the game, CBS' John Breech reported on Kaepernick's reasoning:

There's a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality. There's people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable. People are being given paid leave for killing people. That's not right. That's not right by anyone's standards.

He continued by saying: People of color have been targeted by the police. So that's a large part of it and they're government officials. They are put in place by the government. So that's something that this country has to change.

Now, as we prepare for the 2017 NFL season, Kaepernick's free agent status has become much more than football news. While his play absolutely factors into his current unemployment, the degree to which it does has been criticized. Most popular is the argument claiming NFL teams view Kaepernick simply as an added distraction for actively expressing his stance, be it right or wrong. But as we dig deeper into Kaep's current unemployment controversy, we discover it has several aspects to consider.

The NFL Demographic

When you hear NFL fan, you think of a mid-30s white, bellowing average Joe who drinks Bud Light and thinks he has all the answers to his team's problems. You're not guilty of anything for thinking so, it's simply how we've come to associate the sport of football with it's fans. Sit and watch the commercials on football Sunday and you'll see. However, such a description sounds awfully similar to one often pinned on conservatives. Before I ignite any political debates, understand that this idea is necessary to fully understand one possible explanation for Kaep's unemployment. There is a certain stigma, albeit partly true, surrounding conservatives in today's society. Characterizations of conservatives by the left wing include terms such as: stubborn, ignorant, stupid, and on more extreme ends: racist, homophobic, etc. Why is this relevant? Well, the NFL just so happens to be pretty conservative itself. Courtesy of brandongaille.com, we have the following statistics breaking down the NFL audience in 2015:

• 77% of NFL fans are Caucasian, compared to 15% being African-American/Black and 8% being Hispanic.
• The 55+ age demographic is the largest percentage off the NFL fans demographics at 37%. Another 34% of NFL fans are in the 35-54 age demographic.

Information on political identities of NFL fans is tough to find, however an Experian Simmons study found that registered Republicans were 21 percent more likely to be NFL fans than registered Democrats . In addition Bloomberg Politics teamed up with Resonate Insights and found that the fan bases of [these] 23 teams show a propensity to vote more Republican than they claim, versus only [these] six teams' fans who vote more Democratic.

Perhaps more poignant is the Republican dominance across the 32 NFL owners. According to insidegov.com's database, thirteen NFL owners donated a total of $412,600 to Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012, while Obama received $111,400 from only four NFL donors. And in this past election, President Donald Trump crushed Romney's number when he raked in $7.25 million for his campaign from eight NFL owners.

The point is nobody should be surprised that the strongly nationalistic and predominantly NFL fan base reacted the way they did to Kaepernick's protest. Whether the response was ignorant knee-jerking or well-informed, the result was the same: outrage. On top of that, it's widely known that a significant number of NFL owners are much older (+60 years old), white, traditional Republicans. Often overlooked is the fact that the NFL is a business. Owners look to make money. The main source driving their revenue? Fans. So when fans disapprove of a specific player, for whatever reason, owners likely won't pursue him, especially if he is in their eyes going against their core beliefs by kneeling during the national anthem or bad-mouthing police officers. Which is exactly how both fans and owners felt.

One can argue that cards were stacked against Kaep, sure. He knew his decision to kneel during the National Anthem as millions of nationalistic, older, white conservative fans and owners watched on would not bode well for his reputation. Still, he did nothing to help himself. He completely fumbled his approach to voicing his opinion, and not by kneeling.

Himself

Now that we've identified the audience and owners belonging to the NFL, we can take a look at actions Kaepernick took throughout the year and more easily understand why he is still unsigned. First was the kneel which to the majority of NFL fansor money-makerswas deemed wrong, as we went over. But that's not the main reason for his unemployment. The real reasons are as follows:

1. Following the controversial and high-profile case involving a police officer shooting and killing Philando Castile, Kaepernick posted the above tweet. In the tweet, he is essentially comparing modern day police officers to the slave patrollers of over a hundred years ago. Needless to say, this did not go over well with NFL fans and presumably NFL owners. Though even outside of football, Kaep's tweet was flat-out wrong. There's no excuse. This occurred two months ago and a lot of backlash ensued, so it's both safe and fair to assume the event is still in the backs of NFL organization's minds.

2. This time it's not Kaep tweetingit's his girlfriendbut it nonetheless casts a spotlight on him just as negative as if he did do it himself. As the saying goes: guilty by association. His girlfriend Nessa Diab, a radio personality, posted this tweet two days ago. The Baltimore Ravens began poking around the free agent market for a quarterback of recent, and showed interest in Kaep. A report soon surfaced that both GM Ozzie Newsome and Head Coach John Harbaugh were interested in signing Kaep, though Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti was not on board. This was later refuted in a statement made by Newsome, saying the Ravens are still going through the process and that Bisciotti has not told [him] we cannot sign Kaep. Regardless, this tweet only gives more reason for Kaep's unemployment. The tweet shows an image of HOF linebacker Ray Lewis hugging Bisciotti, mirrored with a scene from the movie Django Unchained where a house slave (Samuel L. Jackson) embraces his slave master (Leonardo DiCaprio). Again, this is completely unnecessary and detrimental to Kaep's chances of landing a job. Diab, through the tweet, is calling Bisciotti a racist based off of... what exactly? A single report? Ray Lewis spent thirteen years with Bisciotti as his owner. If he truly believed he was a racist, would the above photo of their embrace following the Superbowl even exist? No NFL team wants to give their locker room an opportunity to implode by adding a player who is irresponsible in his approach to social activism.

3. DO SOMETHING. 49ers GM John Lynch said it best earlier in July when he spoke with KNBR radio in San Francisco. Lynch talked about the conversation he had with Kaepernick, when he told him I think you are having a little bit of an image crisis in terms of, not so much what you did last year, but people are wondering: Is this most important to you?. He added I think the way you could best help yourself is not to have someone talk for you, not have statements, but go sit down and give an interview and let people know where you stand. Point blank, period. If you want it, go out and get it. There has been little to no words by Kaepernick thoroughly conveying how badly he wants to play. Sit-down talks, public addresses and/or interviews could go a long way.

Conclusion?

Kaepernick finds himself in a tough situation. He certainly has the ability to play, there's no questioning that. For the sake of brevity, I won't get into that, though one could actually argue that since 2012 Kaepernick has been an overall better quarterback than Joe Flacco . Though NFL owners will not and quite frankly should not sign a guy, especially at a position naturally expected to lead (and especially as a backup), who brings with him the ability to tear a locker room apart with poor decision making. At the end of the day the NFL is just as much about business as it is about Superbowls. Fans expressed their disdain towards Kaepernicks actions and owners must be mindful of that. As for Kaepernicks social activism, a respectful and mature approach is admirable. It's something this country could use, there's no doubt about it. Sure, the kneeling during the National Anthem may have been blown out of proportion, primarily thanks to the largely conservative NFL fanbase. But ignorant and controversial social media posts by Kaep, or his girlfriend, severely hurts his chances of signing with a team. Statements released through his agent or publicist retain little value. If he wants a job, he should march that fro into a team facility and refuse to leave without a deal.