Colin Kaepernick, Ten Years After Taking a Knee
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What sparked Colin Kaepernick’s rise to NFL stardom and his early career highlights?
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker.
Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. You know, controversies in the world of sports have been making headlines all year. For months now, the WNBA has been drawn into the debate about trans athletes in sports, even though there isn't a single trans player currently in the league. And the NBA is still reeling from a salary cap scandal, broken by the reporter Pablo Torre, that's led to the billionaire Los Angeles Clipper owner Steve Ballmer being suspended from the sport for an entire year. But a decade ago, the biggest controversy in sports, and one that we're still thinking about, surrounded just one athlete, Colin Kaepernick.
Is Kaepernick still looking for a job because of his stance on social issues and is kneeling for the national anthem last year? Without a doubt, I think this is a big image blow for the NFL. They have to figure out what side of the fence they're already supporting.
Kaepernick had a stunning rise as an NFL star. In twenty twelve, he won the starting quarterback job for the San Francisco 49ers and then led the team all the way to the Super Bowl, a game that they narrowly lost. On the field, Kaepernick was a dynamic dual threat. He could beat you with his arm, could throw long. Or he could beat you running down the field. To this day, Kaepernick still holds the record for rushing yards by an NFL quarterback in a single playoff game. But his considerable skills as a player were quickly overshadowed by his decision to engage in protest for racial justice. You'll remember well, he would kneel During the national anthem before games, and that gesture, that protest generated
An enormous amount of backlash with everyone from his fellow players to future presidents weighing in. Following that story at all?
Well I have uh followed it and I think it's Uh I think it's personally not a good thing. I think it's n I think it's a terrible thing. And uh you know, he'll uh maybe should find a country that works better for him. Let him try. It won't happen.
And Kaepernick paid a price, a really steep price. Even as a star quarterback, after leaving the Forty Niners, no other team in the league, not one, would sign him. In his new memoir, The Perilous Fight, Colin Kaepernick writes that this wasn't even the full extent of the league's efforts to punish him. So I sat down the other day with Colin Kaepernick to talk about how he feels about football now. on the eve of a new NFL season. You were such an all round athlete as a kid growing up.
Yeah.
Why you chose football? Over all the others.
There is a a camaraderie that's built in the huddle and on the field. Um that you don't have in baseball. You don't have in baseball, you don't have in basketball, because especially as a quarterback. Your physical safety is dependent upon ten other people doing their job. It builds this sense of camaraderie and dependence on each other. And you loved it. And you love that element of it. Like there there is a brotherhood there. Um Because you know what's at stake, you know what's um at at risk there. But you go out and you put the work in to be able to accomplish that goal together. Um and it was hard to find that anywhere else. And football was also culturally very different um for me. Oh so there was There was a lot more black players.
Um, for me being a a young black boy adopted into a white family, predominantly white community. So you needed that. I found community in football. Um And that was also an important element for me.
And that seems to be the heart of your origin story, Colin, if I if I can. That that that to be adopted by however well meaning white parents, but who were also making Mistakes all the time, of language, of intent, and and you you set these out really beautifully i in your book. And you have to teach yourself in some way Um blackness in a way that was not of not there in the house and kind of In a way. teaching yourself. Tell me about that process.
Yeah, it's it's an interesting process because I think one of the the important pieces for me is um I think sometimes people assume like there was a
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What sparked Colin Kaepernick’s rise to NFL stardom and his early career highlights?
0:02–6:45
2
How did Kaepernick’s upbringing and identity shape his decision to pursue football?
6:45–12:49
3
Why did Kaepernick decide to kneel during the national anthem in 2016?
12:49–18:38
4
What was the NFL’s immediate response to the kneeling protest and how did it affect his career?
18:38–24:44
5
How did the NFL combine and team interviews reveal the league’s stance on his activism?
24:44–30:35
6
Why did owners and executives label Kaepernick as “uncoachable” or “non‑compliant”?
30:35–37:23
7
What are the long‑term health concerns (CTE, injuries) that Kaepernick discusses about playing football?
37:23–44:51
8
How does Kaepernick view his legacy a decade later and what does he think about returning to the NFL today?
44:51–50:37
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