He has to try not to make it a referendum on him. No other choice.

This is the type of behaviour that will alarm the silent majority.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

I know, but what won't? Kneeling silently? Colin Kaepernick did that and everyone called him the n-word anyway.

I don't want to sound like an asshole and I don't want to paint with a broad brush but I believe there is a simple truth in life that applies to this situation. No one is going to respect you until you respect yourself. There were marches, and gatherings all over the county and city of Milwaukee yesterday and on that same day there were 3 non protest related homicides in the poorest communities that are predominately of color. There were no homicides anywhere else....my county borders milwaukee county and this year we had our first homicide in 10 years.

There are clearly multiple layers to the unrest right now. Police brutality is awful and needs to be dealt with. The things going on in the poorer neighborhoods of color also needs to be addressed and not just deflected and blamed on someone else. We get service calls to these areas and no one wants to go on them. No one has any problem with the clients as they have all been cool but the climate of the neighborhood is scary. I feel uneasy working down the street from where there were 3 murders over the weekend.

There will be a lot of "who ya crappings" when people who insisted that the protests be peaceful patriot and moan about this form of peaceful protest.

Re-running the 2016 playbook in 2020 is going to give Trump a 1980 Carter vote total. Public opinions have changed and the Republicans are no longer in the majority on most of these idiotic culture war issues

You don't sound like an asshole, but it's a lot more complex than pulling yourself up by your bootstraps or the same neighborhoods wouldn't be in poverty after multiple generations and crime would reduce after the increase in policing and technology.

Not going to work when public opinion has shifted a lot on the issue he is pushing.

He can run on his pro-police/anti-kneeling garbage but public opinion has shifted against the police and in support of kneeling. He's getting desperate.

Yes it is.

When this is all over, which is not going to be for a while, Trump will be re-elected President.

I know, but what won't? Kneeling silently? Colin Kaepernick did that and everyone called him the n-word anyway.

Not going to work when public opinion has shifted a lot on the issue he is pushing.

He can run on his pro-police/anti-kneeling garbage but public opinion has shifted against the police and in support of kneeling. He's getting desperate.

OK there's a difference between "pulling yourself up by the bootstraps" and not committing wanton murder. You have to admit.

I know, but what won't? Kneeling silently? Colin Kaepernick did that and everyone called him the n-word anyway.

I think Kaepernick's 3 problems were

1.) That he sucked. He clearly was at the end of his rope career-wise, so he had no leverage with owners or fans;

2.) He is half-black, but he looks like he should be shilling for Arabic-US relations more than anything else, so a lot of his message to people who don't know him probably came off as him saying to the World, "Looky here, I'm Black!"; and

3.) Once he established that, he totally Laurence Holmes'd it on that end with the half-black over-compensating rage.

Nobody rages harder than the guy who has that half guilty white man in him!

Keep it, Kap!

I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game.

I think alot more people would have listened if it were someone other than Kaep.

He is half white and he grew up in a middle class income at worst white family. He never had a clear message or was a great public speaker....when he would actually speak publicly. He said little and he said it less than often. He seems to be happier using social media to get a single statement across than to say it in public.

He may have been retired by this point but why not have a guy like Ed Reed take this stand. People would listen because they respect the fuck out of Ed Reed. There are hundreds of other NFL players that would get more respect than Kaep. Very odd choice.

Kaepernick was far from being on his last leg. He was still a starter and opted out of a contract because he and everyone else assumed he would get more money on the open market.

I think alot more people would have listened if it were someone other than Kaep.

He is half white and he grew up in a middle class income at worst white family. He never had a clear message or was a great public speaker....when he would actually speak publicly. He said little and he said it less than often. He seems to be happier using social media to get a single statement across than to say it in public.

He may have been retired by this point but why not have a guy like Ed Reed take this stand. People would listen because they respect the fuck out of Ed Reed. There are hundreds of other NFL players that would get more respect than Kaep. Very odd choice.

Anybody who plays fantasy football disagrees.

His numbers were fine when he was on the field. He missed almost a full season his last 2 years in the league.

a proprietary chemical irritant that’s proven more effective from even greater distances, PepperBall® projectiles offer the protection and versatility for any situation.

OK there's a difference between "pulling yourself up by the bootstraps" and not committing wanton murder. You have to admit.

I think alot more people would have listened if it were someone other than Kaep.

He is half white and he grew up in a middle class income at worst white family. He never had a clear message or was a great public speaker....when he would actually speak publicly. He said little and he said it less than often. He seems to be happier using social media to get a single statement across than to say it in public.

He may have been retired by this point but why not have a guy like Ed Reed take this stand. People would listen because they respect the fuck out of Ed Reed. There are hundreds of other NFL players that would get more respect than Kaep. Very odd choice.

No one was going to listen. No one ever really listens unless they are a part of the group that's affected. Change takes decades unless the majority screams loud enough.

I don't say you but I think the general public is misremembering the Kap timeline. He was a bit incoherent in his protest at the beginning and looked like he was a puppet of of an activist girlfriend, as he had never been a participant in these types of discussions in the past. I think there was some point in there where he praised the police and then wore socks picturing the police as pigs. There was confusion and inconsistency in what exactly he was saying.

Once his actions started to gain prominence, he was advised by people like Harry Edwards, who has been associated with the 49ers and has put serious thought into the matter for decades. They helped him to have a more directed and sophisticated message on the subject.

I wouldn't care if they didn't play the anthem at all.

I agree.

A lot of people like it though. The anthem Messmer sang after the Kuwait invasion at the hockey All-Star game is considered a great moment in Chicago sports.