“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,” former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick told NFL Network’s Steve Wyche in 2016 (in a now deleted post). “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

It’s amazing that those words, and the protests leading up to them, have twisted the hearts of NFL fans and front offices to the point where Kaepernick has been effectively blackballed from the league, making him even more of a political martyr than the NFL wanted him to be in the first place.

True enough, his last season (2016) could have been better, with the San Francisco 49ers going 1-10 despite him throwing 16 touchdowns to four interceptions. However, considering that current NFL stars were highly complimentary of Kaep’s arm strength as recently as last week, the very idea that there are so many players more worthy of even a training camp invite than the former second-round pick is laughable at best.

At worst, its evidence of the very thing that Kaepernick has been fighting to bring attention to: the disenfranchisement and oppression of Black people and people of color. The attempts to silence the ones who are outspoken, especially if fans would rather watch them catch touchdowns, hit home runs, or dunk a basketball.

To that point, a recent report from Russ Weakland of the DailyMail.com is particularly noteworthy:

“Even with the recent injury to Joe Burrow and the likelihood of other NFL QBs getting injured this season, there is no scenario, where even if and when talked about, that Colin Kaepernick and Tom Brady would come and fill those voids and sign with an NFL team this season.”

“Tom is retired for good, he's done and Colin, no matter how many workouts he does for teams or private workouts he does with current players, no team is signing him…”