The scheduled event is part of the Chargers’ 28th annual Salute to the Military, which was planned before Kaepernick refused to stand for the national anthem before last week’s game against the Green Bay Packers.
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Kaepernick said he plans to continue his protests during the regular season.
I mean, if our national symbol were a calf made out of gold instead of stars and stripes, wouldn’t you feel differently about putting your hand over your heart and standing with everyone else when the music plays?
Photos on sports websites and Twitter on Thursday showed Kaepernick wearing socks patterned with images of pigs with what appear to be police hats, an apparent reference to a crude nickname for law enforcement officers. And that’s why, even if Kaepernick is cut this weekend, Reid is strongly considering kneeling during the anthem anyway in an effort to generate awareness for racial injustice and police brutality.
“If he were criticizing the military directly, I could see a huge conflict there, ” said Wilson, president and executive director of the National Veterans Transition Services, Inc. Over in Oakland, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane, 26, sat down during the national anthem.
Colin Kaepernick felt the need to say something about how members of the military feel.
Reid said many of Kaepernick’s ideas had “been on my mind”.
Maybe my Sunday school teacher got it mixed up, but I kinda thought that was actually a moral in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Kaepernick got much heavier boos when he took the field to start the game for the 49ers and immediately led them on a 16-play, 85-yard touchdown drive. The quarterback lost the starting job last season, and he hasn’t separated himself from Blaine Gabbert this summer under new coach Chip Kelly.
Kelly has been adamant that the starting job is still up in the air, and that Kaepernick still has a chance to overtake Gabbert and earn the role.
“It’s not for me, ” he said before ducking into the tunnel and heading to the locker room.
Kaepernick doesn’t intend his stance to be a criticism of the military.
Colin Kaepernick’s protest was considered to be even more outrageous or courageous depending on your point of view because the San Diego Chargers just happened to be holding their 28th Annual Salute to the Military night.
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Johnson’s comments come just three days after San Francisco’s police union head called Kaepernick a “great disappointment”. So I think that it was very big of him to change his physical position, to taking a knee, to show respect to those people, but still stand up for the message he was trying to portray.
