Colin Kaepernick knelt during the US national anthem as a peaceful protest against police brutality and racial injustice. The quarterback first performed the gesture before a San Francisco 49ers pre-season game in September 2016.
Kaepernick repeated the action before 11 regular-season contests during that same year. Donald Trump called the act unpatriotic and a "terrible thing," while suggesting that players who refused to stand should be fired.
The NFL stated it would fine teams whose players did not stand during the anthem. A financial settlement was reached in 2019 after Kaepernick filed a grievance against NFL team owners.
The NFL admitted it was "wrong for not listening to players earlier." Nike used Kaepernick as the face of an advertising campaign in 2018.
Kaepernick said, "I knew the protest could potentially cost me my career...I would absolutely do it again." He noted that the consequences are real, stating, "We also see this in broader movements, going well beyond costing someone their career, and costing people their lives. We see Malcolm X assassinated, we see MLK [Martin Luther King] assassinated, so the consequences are real."
The athlete added, "This is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way." Kaepernick, who was adopted by a white family in California, published a memoir titled The Perilous Fight.
During his final season, Kaepernick threw 16 touchdowns and previously led the 49ers to the 2013 Super Bowl. England's men's and women's football teams took the knee following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
Kick It Out told BBC Sport the gesture "still has value in raising awareness of the structural inequalities that exist in football and society." Reports of discrimination received by Out more than doubled in the past 5 years.
