It took some four years, but a former NFL executive sees the errors in his ways in regards to Colin Kaepernick.
Kaepernick’s original and ongoing protest has been rooted in the fight to end police brutality and oppression against minorities, but his kneeling during the National Anthem caused outrage around the country in 2016.
Following the season, he parted ways with the 49ers and no team has signed him since.
Former NFL executive Joe Lockhart is just now admitting that he and the NFL “was wrong” for failing to sign Kaepernick.
“I was wrong,” Lockhart wrote on CNN. “I think the teams were wrong for not signing him. Watching what’s going on in Minnesota, I understand how badly wrong we were.”
He continued:
“Signing Kaepernick, they thought, was bad for business,” Lockhart writes. “An executive from one team that considered signing Kaepernick told me the team projected losing 20% of their season ticket holders if they did.”
“I know now it was not enough just to spend money to make progress on the issue of racial disparities,” Lockhart writes. “That is crucial, but so are symbols that reflect that attempt at progress — and also the failure to reach it. And Colin Kaepernick became the symbol of black men being treated differently than white men in America.”
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Kaepernick clearly deserves a spot in the NFL, but so far no owners or general managers are willing to bring him on.
As for now, he continues to remain a huge topic of discussion, especially after the police-related death George Floyd in Minneapolis.
