The debate over Colin Kaepernick’s blackballing continues, with more players taking up his call for action through either vocal or symbolic support. Stars from other sports, such as Kevin Durant, have added their support for Kap as well, but a superstar QB had yet to step up to the plate in both recognition and support for the former 49er.
Until now.
Aaron Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers’ All-World QB, just jumped into the conversation in an interview with ESPN’s Mina Kimes.
“I think he should be on a roster right now,” Rodgers said. “I think because of his protests, he’s not.”
WATCH- “The Continuing Discussion Around Colin Kaepernick”
The Discussion on Colin Kaepernick Continues
While this is sure to open some eyes across the NFL landscape, it shouldn’t come as a surprise as Rodgers is not one to stand quiet when it comes to ignorance. Take for example the team’s game against the Lions where, before the kickoff, a moment of silence was held in honor of the victims in the terrorist attack in Paris. During that time, a fan yelled an anti-Islamic comment and Rodger addressed it afterwards saying “It’s that kind of prejudicial ideology that puts us in the position we’re in today, as a world.”
Even President Obama recognized the honesty and importance of his comments, sending him a letter which holds great meaning to the Packers’ QB. It’s “something I still have and means a lot to me,” he says in the interview with Kimes. “A lot of times, you’ll go back, and even with this interview, I’ll go back and say, ‘Maybe I should have said this.’ But in that moment, I said exactly what I wanted to say.”
Rodgers spoke with new teammate Martellus Bennett about Kap’s situation and made it clear that while he won’t take a knee because of his feelings about the flag, he understands the position Bennett, and others, are in and fully respects it.
“I’m gonna stand because that’s the way I feel about the flag — but I’m also 100 percent supportive of my teammates or any fellow players who are choosing not to,” says Rodgers. “They have a battle for racial equality. That’s what they’re trying to get a conversation started around.”
Rodgers is not just one of the brightest minds on the field but also off of the field. He understands the reality of what’s going on the world and doesn’t shy away from how it affects him, his teammates and society.
“I think the best way I can say this is: I don’t understand what it’s like to be in that situation. What it is to be pulled over, or profiled, or any number of issues that have happened, that Colin was referencing — or any of my teammates have talked to me about.
But I know it’s a real thing my black teammates have to deal with.”
And he’s not afraid to deal with it either.
