Colin Kaepernick: A Man That Sacrificed Nothing an Opinion
TRAVIS WILLMANN, SPORTS EDITOR
Courtesy of Unsplash.com
The views and opinions expressed on in this article are solely those of the original author. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of The Vision NGU or North Greenville University.
Over the past couple of years, no one NFL player has created more controversy then Colin Kaepernick. From kneeling for the national anthem, to suing the NFL for collusion against him, Kaepernick has caused more controversy than any one NFL player ever in its history.
Nike has recently picked Kaepernick up as their main sponsor and their new ad that features a black and white picture of Kaepernick with the words: “Believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything.” This, of course, is in reference to Nike believing that Kaepernick sacrificed his NFL career for social justice. However, is this really the case? Did Kaepernick really sacrifice everything for “social justice”?
In order to discover this, let’s look at Kaepernick’s short, but interesting NFL career. Kaepernick played six years in the NFL and during that time he threw 72 touchdowns and 30 interceptions, according to NFL.com. This means for every 2.4 touchdowns he threw, he also threw an interception. Cam Newton was drafted by the Carolina Panthers the same year that Kaepernick was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers. During 8 seasons with the Panthers, Newton has managed 161 touchdowns and 95 interceptions, according to NFL.com, which means he has thrown 1.7 touchdowns for every interception. How does Newton manage to have a worse touchdown to interception ratio and still play in the NFL and Kaepernick does not? The answer is simple, owners do not want players who are hard to get along with others.
Kaepernick brought unwanted attention to the 49ers and his owner and coach had to decide, either they were going to make the minority happy or try to please the majority of patriotic Americans. By getting rid of Kaepernick, the owner of the 49ers, Edward John DeBartolo Jr., stopped the negative impact Kaepernick was having on the team. In other words, Kaepernick was not a good enough player to keep around. If this would have been Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, their team name would still have been drug through the mud, but their owners would still have kept them on the team.
The moral of the story is that Kaepernick did not sacrifice anything for his beliefs. He was never a good quarterback and never would have been, but the 49ers might have kept him around for a few more seasons. It is hard to sacrifice something when you have nothing really to sacrifice. Not to mention that there are thousands of young men and women going overseas to protect our freedom. These men and women are not guaranteed to return home. What if Nike had chosen to do the same ad, but with an American hero that lost his or her life overseas. We would not be having this discussion and Nike would have seen the same success they are having now, but without all the controversy.
