Kaepernick's Ten-Year Kneel Anniversary Feels More Like a Replay Than a Revolution
Ten years after taking a knee during the national anthem, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback is back in the spotlight with a new memoir. The book, titled "The Perilous Fight," arrives alongside interviews where he doubles down on the racial activism that once defined his public image. In a recent NBC News conversation, he explained his protest was always about what he called systemic oppression and police violence against Black communities. He also said he was channeling civil rights legends like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. while kneeling on the sideline.
Back in his prime, he was genuinely fun to watch on the football field. During the 2012 playoffs, he torched a defense for 263 passing yards and added 181 rushing yards, setting a record for most rushing yards by a quarterback in a single game. His 2012 and 2013 seasons were special, and nobody can erase those highlights. But the magic did not last. By 2015, the team had benched him in favor of backup Blaine Gabbert. He reclaimed the starting job briefly in 2016, though one game ended with him throwing for just four yards before getting pulled. The 49ers posted a dismal 1-10 record in his starts that season, and he ranked near the bottom of qualified NFL quarterbacks by most measurements.
Once he became a free agent in 2017, teams had little reason to bring him on board. His on-field decline coincided with the ongoing controversy around his anthem protests, making him a tough sell for franchises looking for stability. Plenty of other backup quarterbacks were available without the baggage of pregame political demonstrations. Even so, had he still been playing at his 2012 level, most teams likely would have looked past the kneeling. Talent has a funny way of softening controversy in pro sports.
His activism has taken some strange turns over the years. He appeared in a Netflix documentary that drew comparisons between NFL players and enslaved people, a comparison most observers found baffling. Now 38 and a decade removed from his last snap, he seems frustrated that no team has come calling. The peak moment for his anti-police movement arguably arrived after George Floyd's death, when the NFL publicly expressed regret for not embracing his message sooner. Crime spiked in many cities during that period, and Black neighborhoods often suffered the most. The country has since moved past that chapter, though debates over policing and prison reform continue.
Comparing him to Muhammad Ali feels like a stretch. Ali gave up years of his boxing prime over Vietnam and still returned as a champion and cultural icon because his greatness was undeniable. Kaepernick's legacy rests on a kneeling protest, not a trophy case. He now criticizes the NFL for painting "End Racism" in end zones, calling those gestures hollow. Fair point, maybe, but his own anthem protest a decade ago was also a performance, one that has aged about as well as the league's painted slogans.