Kaepernick Takes Aim at NFL’s BLM Gestures, Blasts Them as ‘Propaganda’

As the NFL returned to action over the weekend, one of the most prominent storylines in the entire league came in the form of pre-game protests that both players and staff engaged in.

This is the 2020 sports-world in a nutshell, as social justice has been identified as a necessary bit of corporate outreach during this tumultuous year.  The NFL had their opportunity to jump on this bandwagon years ago when Colin Kaepernick’s anthem-kneeling protests were infuriating the league’s massive fanbase.

Instead of taking any side, however, the NFL’s leadership remained strategically quiet, forcing the fans to abandon them, fearing that the league was spineless.

Now that the NFL is finally working with players to facilitate such protests, however, Colin Kaepernick has expressed his distaste for the theatrics of it all.

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick said NFL social justice initiatives were “propaganda” on Sunday as scattered protests marked the first full day of the 2020 season.

Kaepernick, who launched his kneeling protests in 2016 to draw attention to racial injustice, questioned the sincerity of the NFL’s stance against racism, citing the fact that fellow player-activist Eric Reid remained unemployed.

Reid, who joined Kaepernick’s protests in 2016 when the two played for the 49ers, was released by the Carolina Panthers in March in a move that surprised many.

The 28-year-old safety, who continued to kneel last season during the pre-game playing of the US national anthem, has not been hired since.

“While the NFL runs propaganda about how they care about Black Life, they are still actively blackballing Eric Reid for fighting for the Black community,” Kaepernick wrote on Twitter.

It seems as though Kaepernick sees through the league’s desperate appeals for the return of their fanbase.