...which would be missing the point of the protests.
If he would have said all the reasons he chooses to stand, but “I know the protests aren’t about the flag, or my relatives in the military. But I disagree with the method of which they bring apart their message. However, I agree with their message and I will do (XYZ) to help do my part to end police brutality among minorities.” Nobody would have batted an eye.
“Offended the majority of the country” all I’ll say to this is lol. The only people who made it about the anthem were the people who were offended. The protests were never and have never been about the flag or the military. Ever.
“find a better way” so people condemned people for silently kneeling during an anthem. Then they condemn people for speaking out on social media and that they should stick to sports. Then they speak out against protesting the police because “that’s who you call whenever you need help.” Then they condemned them for rioting and causing violence “do it the peaceful way like MLK.”
sounds like people just don’t want to hear their voice to me.
At the risk of getting too far out of hand, and Viqsi can delete this post if necessary:
The bolded is completely not true. Kaepernick's first quote about the whole thing way back in August 2016 was about not having pride in the flag. You mention what Brees could have said, but here's what Kap could have said back then: something like, "I believe very strongly in America's values that are represented in the flag. However, at this moment in time, we are not seeing those values applied fairly to all of her citizens, specifically people of color, due to issues like police brutality and systemic racism. I am trying to bring awareness so that ALL of America's citizens are treated the way they rightfully ought to be according to the Constitution that flag represents, which is why I'm kneeling before it to hopefully lead to a more equitable society for all Americans, regardless of race." That was not the original basis of his protest. (To his credit, he did try to morph it more in that direction after the initial heavy backlash.) In addition, he also did other things as Bread Man said such as wear a shirt with Castro on it and defend the Castro regime (I'm a Cuban American whose grandfather came to America in the midst of Castro's violent revolution which led to his barbaric, tyrannical, murderous regime. Yeah, Kap... that didn't help me be sympathetic to your cause.). There's a lot of revisionist history when it comes to Kap.
This is not to say bringing the flag into it wasn't the most effective way for Kap to get the change he was/is looking for. Protests have to make people uncomfortable (and maybe angry) to be most effective. And of course, the First Amendment of the country whose flag he has/had no pride in allowed him to do that protest without being put in prison or executed. But it was absolutely about the flag.
A great idea I've seen floated would be to protest in the following way throughout the league for the entire season: instead of during the national anthem, after the game's opening kickoff, before the first offensive play, all of the players get down on a knee for the duration of the play clock. The offensive team is penalized for delay of game, the defensive team declines the penalty and the game gets back underway normally. This: a) completely takes the flag/anthem out of the discussion; and b) allows the protests to reach a greater audience (the NFL doesn't show the national anthem on TV during the regular season, so this would actually allow millions more people to see the protest, and the commentators could even talk about it for those 40 seconds).
If those against Kaepernick don't like it, it means it's not about the flag to them, it's really that they don't like the message/don't like being uncomfortably made to consider some underlying issues that might exist in this country. If those in favor of Kaepernick don't like it, it means it's primarily about the flag, not the message (or at the least, they feel they need to bring the flag into it to ... which again means there's something underlying about it being about the flag. Perhaps those players feel the need/want to do something that could actually be considered disrespectful to the flag if they think it's the best way to go about it. That's within their rights, but it means the "it's never been about the flag" is a lie.)
At the end of the day, and bringing this all back in, I think this thread (and the treatment of Brees, who made an ill-timed, tone deaf comment but not a racist one yet got ridiculously destroyed/cancelled despite being a former Walter Payton Man of the Year and donating over $30 million in his career to various causes like Katrina relief and Covid recovery that significantly helped NO's black residents, among other NO residents) makes it easy to see why Seth might not speak up more. His thoughts in the Athletic article were fine. Maybe he doesn't feel the need to go beyond those thoughts, or maybe he has other thoughts on the issues that a lot of people might not take too kindly to and now doesn't feel comfortable expressing.
