Who is Colin Kaepernick, Really?

A closer look at some of the contradictions of the man at the center of a movement

I’ve dedicated much of my writing to Colin Kaepernick and the ongoing saga he unleashed when he began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police violence. I’ve argued that Kaepernick’s exile from the NFL is a labor rights violation. I’ve examined how the antitrust implications of his collusion case could blow up professional sports in America. I’ve written an exposé of the lengths to which Electronic Arts went to suppress his presence in the video game Madden NFL (it went well beyond the soundtrack edits). I’ve been an ardent advocate for Kaepernick. This piece is a sharp deviation from course — one I hadn’t seen coming.

My work on Kaepernick is in part driven by the urge to fill the white space in my knowledge of him with some color. He is notoriously, frustratingly close-lipped. It’s difficult to get a clear portrait of him. I’ve come to realize that yes, that white space is there, obscuring things, but there is also a troublesome dissonance that is interfering with the image of Kaepernick I’ve been examining. That dissonance emanates from the conflicting messages Kaepernick sends about himself.

In response to one of my pieces on Kaepernick, I recently received communication from a woman…