Colin Kaepernick Stands Up

Muhammad Ali. Jackie Robinson. Billie Jean King. Roberto Clemente. Jim Brown. Bill Russell. Jack Johnson. Curt Flood. Sports has a long history of athletes whose political activism was critical to our perceptions of them, and ultimately enhanced their legacies.

In 1967, Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title for refusing military service. He was publicly criticized for everything from lack of patriotism to cowardice, but his legacy is greater today for the stand he took then. In 1947, the Dodgers moved their spring training from Florida because Jackie Robinson faced harassment there. The NFL moved the Super Bowl from Arizona when the state refused to recognize Martin Luther King Day. South Africa was banned from Olympic participation during apartheid. The link between athletics and social justice is long and diverse, and should be a source of inspiration for sports fans.

When San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the National Anthem, he was making the same kind of statement as the legends who came before him. Kaepernick isn't the same caliber of player as Jim Brown or Bill Russell, and that — if nothing else — probably means his name will never make the same list as Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson. But that doesn't mean that Kaepernick's message is irrelevant or unimportant.

Kaepernick tied his decision not to stand for the anthem to the ongoing murder of young black men by police, with no apparent consequences for the officers involved. It's an obvious problem without obvious solutions (though the Black Lives Matter movement has proposed some intriguing solutions). I don't especially disagree with Kaepernick, but I don't entirely agree with him, either. When I'm at the stadium on opening day, I'll stand for the Star-Spangled Banner. When I hear that song, I'm reminded of the values this country was founded on: no taxation without representation, all men are created equal, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, a free press and freedom of speech, and so on. It's something to celebrate and be proud of.

How often do we think about freedom of speech? It's often misunderstood, claimed as a defense by people who say offensive things and then get offended when they're called out, or asked to leave a private group or establishment. Freedom of speech guarantees that the government will not abridge speech. It's legal in this country to say offensive things, to speak in poor taste, to be a bigot. And it should be. If a store owner kicks you out for bothering the customers, or an online forum bans you for posting racist material, that's legitimate, but the government will not arrest you for these things. That may seem obvious today, but 240 years ago, it was revolutionary.

It's freedom of speech that gives people the right to burn a flag in protest of the government's actions. The most powerful expression of free speech I ever witnessed was a Canadian man setting his passport on fire — while he was in another country — to protest his government's position at a United Nations conference. It's freedom of speech that gives Kaepernick the right to protest by sitting through the national anthem, and it's freedom of speech that gives others the right to criticize him for it.

Colin Kaepernick is no longer a starter, much less a star. But he's a high-profile athlete, a starting quarterback in the Super Bowl just four years ago. And when he chose not to stand for the national anthem, it made headlines. It drew attention to his position. There haven't been any Alton Sterlings or Philando Castiles in the last month, which is a welcome surprise, but we need people like Kaepernick to make sure no one forgets about this problem. I don't have to agree with Kaepernick's way of making a statement to admire his activism. He had to know this decision would draw criticism, would make some people hate him and boo him and burn his jersey. He did it anyway, because it seemed like the right thing. I don't have to agree about what the right thing is to admire someone who strives for it. Making unpopular decisions requires bravery, and what Kaepernick did was brave.

As an athlete, Colin Kaepernick is not the same as Muhammad Ali or Billie Jean King or Roberto Clemente. But as a person, he's cut from the same cloth. Rather than taking a knee-jerk reaction like the one that Ali encountered, let's do what all of Ali's critics wish today that they had done differently: not rush to condemn, but thoughtfully consider the athlete's position. Sitting during the national anthem doesn't hurt anyone. It may be distasteful or unpatriotic, but professional athletes do worse things than that every day. And they don't usually do it in the name of social justice, trying to call attention to a problem that really does hurt people.

I respect Kaepernick for making a statement, and I wish more high-level athletes would do the same thing. Some I'll agree with, and some I won't, and some I'll be on the fence. But I'll take Kaepernick's action — trying to do the right thing — over other athletes' inaction, keeping their heads down and letting other people pave the paths of progress: "Republicans buy sneakers, too." We have more respect for Muhammad Ali than George Foreman — Ali stood up for what he believed in, even when it was deeply unpopular, while Foreman sold grills and named a dozen children after himself — and I have more respect for Colin Kaepernick today than I did last week.