Everybody seems to have an opinion about Colin Kaepernick. The embattled NFL quarterback is seemingly a pariah a season removed from his national anthem protest, despite the fact that dozens of current NFL players are picking up the protest mantle and the meaning behind his protest, the oppression of people of color in America, seems more relevant now than before.
Many of those opinions aren’t worth listening to but when baseball legend Hank Aaron speaks on the matter, you better believe that what he says counts.
In a video released Wednesday by AllThatTV, Aaron says that Kaepernick is “getting a raw deal” and asked that an NFL team sign the quarterback to give him “a chance to do his thing.”
“[Kaepernick] has gone to all these camps, I suppose, and nobody seems to think he stands a chance to be a No. 1 [quarterback]. Here’s a man, a young player, that almost carried a team to a championship, to a Super Bowl. I think somebody needs to give this man a chance.”
Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron thinks Colin Kaepernick deserves a chance. pic.twitter.com/pJWWIpx3p7
— ESPN (@espn) August 23, 2017
Aaron faced terrible racial prejudices during his run to break Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record in 1974. So he knows what it’s like to have a faceless army of trolls out there attempting to lessen your accomplishments and take away your opportunities.
Meanwhile, the NAACP has announced that it is attempting to meet with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to discuss Kaepernick’s situation. NAACP’s interim president and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement that “no player should be victimized and discriminated against because of his exercise of free speech” and that it is “no sheer coincidence” that the QB is unable to find a team to play for after speaking out.
[ESPN]