Former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick has accused two high-profile Black former players of abandoning colleagues who protested during the league’s national anthem controversy nearly a decade ago.
Kaepernick, now 38 and still a free agent, also said white NFL players largely failed to engage with the police brutality and racism that drove him and other Black athletes to kneel during the anthem. In an interview with The New Yorker’s David Remnick, he acknowledged receiving support from certain white stars while he remained unsigned, but said that backing did not extend to the central cause behind his protest.
“Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady came out and supported me, saying that I shouldn’t be blackballed, and I should be on an NFL team,” Kaepernick said while discussing his new book about the controversy. “So there was support in that regard in very select instances. But around the topic of police killing Black folks and trying to address the systemic issues? Very limited.”
His criticism, however, was not limited to white players.
Kaepernick told Remnick that he believes the NFL Players Coalition, an organization formed around social justice and racial equality initiatives, was used by the league to weaken the anthem demonstrations led by him, former San Francisco 49ers teammate Eric Reid and other players.
“I mean, there were players in the NFL that joined forces with the NFL, in the Players Coalition,” Kaepernick said, before naming two Black stars who led the group. “Those were efforts that were led by Malcolm Jenkins and Anquan Boldin, and sold the protest out, or attempted to. Very real conversations that were had there. I mean, I would say, largely, NFL players—I don’t think they collectively responded. I do think there was a missed opportunity there.”
Former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick has accused two prominent Black former players of betraying fellow protesters during the 2017 season.
(From left) Players Coalition members Anquan Boldin, Malcolm Jenkins, Kenny Stills and Eric Reid are pictured outside NFL headquarters in Manhattan on October 17, 2017.
The Daily Mail said it requested comment from Jenkins and Boldin, who are both retired, along with representatives for the Players Coalition.
The Players Coalition remains active, though it faced an early split shortly after it was created. Reid, Michael Thomas and Russell Okung left the organization amid internal disputes.
And that was just one group working to stop the protests, according to Kaepernick.
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‘I had players who came back and were, like, “Oh, I talked to my agent about it,” or “I talked to my family about it,”‘ Kaepernick told Remnick. ‘We had players across the league – I remember one. Playing this back is a little bit of a mind-blowing conversation. I had one player who came back and was, like, “My owner told me that I can’t protest.”
‘And that was an unfathomable sentence to me.’
Kaepernick did credit some teammates and other players for stepping up: ‘I had great people by my side. I mean, whether it’s Eric Reid or Kenny Stills, Albert Wilson.’
The protests continued after Kaepernick’s tenure in San Francisco came to an end in March of 2017 before the demonstrations died out in 2021.
San Francisco 49ers outside linebacker Eli Harold, quarterback Colin Kaepernick and safety Eric Reid kneel during the national anthem before a game to protest racist police brutality
He has not played in the NFL since the 2016 season, when he ignited a nationwide free-speech debate with the protests. And although Kaepernick has been in contact with a few interested teams, the quarterback who once guided the 49ers to the Super Bowl has remained a free agent.
‘I had had a visit with the Seattle Seahawks,’ Kaepernick told Remnick. ‘They brought me in. They did not do a workout with me because, they said, “We already know you’re a starter.” What they asked me was everything about my political beliefs, the protests, and then ultimately said, “We’re not going to offer you to play on the Seahawks.”‘
These days, Kaepernick refuses to watch the NFL, saying the league is still ‘actively blackballing’ him a decade after his controversial protests.
‘I’m not gonna support an organization that one, is actively blackballing me, but two, has targeted my brothers who have been protesting as part of this as well,’ Kaepernick recently told NBC News in an interview. ‘I watch college football.’
The NFL has denied blackballing Kaepernick and Reid, who both reached confidential settlements with the league in 2019 over allegations of collusion. Kaepernick has since gone through a few NFL tryouts without being welcomed back into the league.