Vern Hee: former NFL quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, is still in the news

Obviously, the football season is weighing on my mind. The opening college games came with a flurry and they ran from Thursday night until Monday because of the Labor Day holiday. I loved it.

And I also love my NFL football.

This is why I can’t believe we are still talking about Colin Kaepernick, but yet again he is in the news. All this talk about former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick taking a knee is sad, but I will not go so far as to call it un-American. Some are saying they are giving up NFL football for that. Not me. Not a chance. Not for that. I think giving up football for that reason is ridiculous.

Kaepernick is a has-been. And I will say this, I don’t agree with what he did. But that being said, he is old news and as a friend of mine always says - ‘He is dead to me.’

Yes, Kaepernick has upset a lot of people about his claims of racism, and I see that. And I agree with most when they say it is a sad state of affairs that he is using American football to take his stand. But it is not the majority of players. It is just a few. And are they bad apples? No, for all the protests have been limited to taking a knee during the ”Star Spangled Banner.” Yes, that is bad, but when you look at it as a whole, is it really that bad?

You see, I have seen radicals up close. I have seen closed-minded people on both sides throwing bottles at each other and burning police cars. I have been there. I guess once you see extremists up close it gives you a different perspective. I was briefly a police officer up in the city of Berkeley in 1992, fully dressed in riot gear and had stones and bottles thrown at me. So don’t tell me what is un-American. What is happening in Berkeley is un-American. They recently didn’t let conservatives speak in Berkeley, that is un-American.

What Kaepernick and his fellow players are doing is not and I would argue that they are doing the American thing.

I appreciate it when protests are done peacefully because that is the American way. I think there is a big difference in a peaceful protest where a few protesters are taking a knee in something they believe in as opposed to what is happening in San Francisco and Berkeley and a few other cities across our great country, where protesters are rioting because of what President Donald Trump did to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The bottom line is one may disagree with Kaepernick and what he is doing, but he is doing the American thing. He is peacefully protesting.

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com