Colin Sheridan: Kaepernick proves it pays to remain silent
FROZEN OUT: Colin Kaepernick speaks at a tech conference in San Francisco last year. Pic: Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch
It's 12 years since San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick led his team on one final drive up the field in an attempt to win the Super Bowl. Trailing the Baltimore Ravens 34-29, Kaepernick did what he’d done all season, scrambling and passing his way up to first and goal, just a few yards short of the Ravens endzone. With a couple of minutes still on the clock, a touchdown for San Francisco was no guarantee of victory, but had he found his receivers on any of his three attempts, the odds were in Kaepernick's favour to become only the second Black quarterback (after Washington's Doug Williams in 1988) to lead a franchise to a Super Bowl victory.
Thanks to poor execution and arguably poorer play calling, none of his passes landed. The 49ers settled for a field goal and ultimately came up short. Kaepernick's tumultuous final drive was indicative of a remarkable season for a guy who began the year as Alex Smith’s understudy, a player most fans had never heard of. By the end of it, he was the talk of the league.
With the exception of the brilliant (but troubled) Michael Vick, he was like nothing the game had seen before. Tall, athletic, a natural-born runner, he bucked the trend in an era when pocket passers like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning were de rigueur. Kaepernick was raw, fearless and imposing. He was also Black, his signature afro and inked arms an affront to the buttoned-up, po-faced country-club clique of quarterbacks that hitherto was the preserve of the white man. Kaepernick may have lost that Super Bowl, but as far as his prospects went, he had won a world of possibilities.
Or so he must have thought. After a difficult but promising second season as starter, injuries and coaching changes further interrupted Kaepernick's progress. No matter. By any measure he was an above average quarterback, a position where 'average' was exceptional. There were no red flags in terms of being distracted by the high-life (a la Johnny Manziel). He was a well-regarded teammate with proven game intelligence. In his worst moments, he was an erratic, inaccurate passer. At his best, he had the legs of a gazelle and the arm of a souped-up howitzer. He was wicked smart, too.
Maybe too smart. In an otherwise forgettable preseason game ahead of the 2016 season, Kaepernick deliberately sat during the pre-match playing of the US national anthem to protest against racial injustice, police brutality and oppression in the country. Kaepernick continued to kneel during the anthem throughout the entire season, often by himself. A silent protest that screamed louder than anybody could have predicted.
His dissent naturally divided opinion, with many praising his bravery in standing up for what he believed in, whatever the cost. Others, including President Trump, were less impressed: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL. owners,” he said in a response to a question about Kaepernick, “when somebody disrespects our flag to, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now.’”
And so, they did. At the end of that season Kaepernick became a free agent and has remained unsigned ever since. The NFL, which had protected and forgiven all manner of criminals, including countless domestic abusers, consciously cancelled Kaepernick for deigning to protest racial and social injustice. The symbol of him kneeling on prime-time television was considered by Trump and his acolytes to be treason. The silhouette of his afro hair only antagonised them further. As a player, Kaepernick was good, but not so good that he should be forgiven by the racist bigots his activism offended.
It’s worth remembering Kaepernick in the context of Trump’s return to the White House, especially when compared to another symbol - Elon Musk’s salute from the podium last Monday. For the most part, athlete activism remains the preserve of Kaepernick-level sports people. Think Anwar El Ghazi, who had his contract wrongfully terminated by German club Mainz after he posted in support of Palestinians on social media. Think, too, of Mesut Özil, whose decline as a player coincided with his outspoken support of the persecuted Uighur Muslims in China.
NBA star Dwight Howard recently spoke of the ruckus a tweet he sent in 2014 caused: “I tweeted Free Palestine,” Howard said during a recent appearance on The Gauds Show podcast. “Less than 10 minutes (later), I get a call from the commissioner of the NBA, agents, people working with my foundation at the time … [telling me] ‘you have to erase this tweet, you have to take it down’.”
During the last year in Ireland, we have seen many sports stars speak up on Palestine. The fact most of these athletes are retired speaks to two things: One, active players live in a bubble, and the expression of any view that makes others uncomfortable is a distraction from the business of winning, and two, even if they do believe something is worthy of their support, they are unwilling to make public their dissent, because when they look at someone like Colin Kaepernick, they realise the potential consequences.
It would be unthinkable for an Irish rugby player, for instance, to break protocol and express a political view in the build up to their 6 Nations opener against England. So too to spot a keffiyeh headcover on Shane Lowry's driver at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am this week.
It says a lot about the industry that it takes most of them to retire before we learn who they really are.
Football is hard enough, Arsenal fans must surely know, without attempting to win a league without an actual striker. That the one striker they were relying on - the injured Gabriel Jesus - was not really a striker to begin with, only speaks to some grand delusion their manager Mikel Arteta has been peddling as a higher truth. A myth he’s whispered as if he knows something the rest of us do not.
Ordinarily, you’d have to defer to the superior knowledge of a Spanish manager plying his trade in the top five in the Premier League, but literally every scintilla of evidence points to the fact that, in order to win the league, a team needs a goalscorer. A proven one. Not a lucky-dip merchant who defies all indicators to suddenly become Gerd Müller. The last time an Arsenal player topped the goalscoring charts was Robin Van Persie in 2012. He scored 30 goals. The club sold him and the following season he led the league again, this time for rivals Manchester United.
Alexis Sanchez put in a couple of stellar 20-plus goal seasons in the last decade, but it was the troublesome Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with 20 goals in 2019-2020, who ranks as the last Arsenal player to break into the top-five leading scorers on a given season. Lacazette (13 goals), Martinell (15) and Saka (16) are the club's top scorers the last three seasons. Hardly Ferenc Puskás numbers.
In light of Gabriel Jesus’s season-ending injury, Arteta has insisted Arsenal will only look to sign a striker that “fits.” Fits what? A team intent on beating itself by not having a clinical finisher? Sometimes, perfect is the enemy of good. If Arsenal had a good striker, not Kai Havertz, 13-goals-a-year good, at least they could cross one reason off the list as to why they are not winning league titles. Sometimes, if it plays like a duck, it quite simply is a duck. And you win nothing with ducks.
Sophomore seasons are supposed to be the most difficult, just not for San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama. Last season's rookie of the year is on course to be on the shortlist for this year's regular season MVP, an incredible progression for the 7 foot 3 Frenchman who moves like Kyrie, shoots like Ray Allen, and blocks like a giant playing with pygmies.
His recent trip home to Paris showcased all his otherworldly talents - as ESPN described it: “two games, 50 points, 23 rebounds, eight assists, six blocked shots, two courts dedicated, one trip to the Eiffel Tower, a Fashion Week appearance, a Champions League match attended and about a million high-fives.”
The Spurs played the Indiana Pacers as the NBA brought the league on the road, and if the trip proved anything it's that Wemby is not just the future of the sport, but it’s present as well.
Yesterday, Jannik Sinner won the Australian Open, defending his title and cementing his status as the world's form tennis player. Last March, Sinner escaped punishment after testing positive, an offence he was very quickly absolved of blame for by the International Tennis Integrity Agency. WADA - the World Anti-Doping Agency - appealed the verdict and has asked for Sinner to be banned for one to two years. The case is set to be decided upon in April. There was little mention of these details during Sinner's procession yesterday, and while his case is clouded in conjecture, how WADA’s case proceeds this spring will go a long ways to both define the Italian's burgeoning legacy, and tennis’s attitude to doping.
