Colin Kaepernick Is Furious with the NFL — Here’s Why

A decade after his anthem protest split the country, Colin Kaepernick says the NFL is still keeping him off the field. The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, now 38, made the claim in a rare NBC News interview tied to the protest’s 10-year mark.

He said he no longer watches NFL games because of how the league treated him and other players who joined the demonstrations. “I’m not gonna support an organization that one, is actively blackballing me, but two, has targeted my brothers who have been protesting as part of this as well,” Kaepernick said. “I watch college football.”

The protest started on Aug. 26, 2016, when he stayed seated during the anthem before a preseason game against Green Bay. He later knelt with teammate Eric Reid, saying the act was aimed at police brutality and racial inequality.

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,” he said at the time. Fans, veterans, and political leaders called the gesture disrespectful to the flag and to those who served.

Former Green Beret Nate Boyer met with the players before a Sept. 1, 2016, preseason game in San Diego to discuss how the protest might show more respect for military personnel. Reid had suggested kneeling instead of sitting.

Kaepernick’s last NFL game was Jan. 1, 2017. He opted out of his 49ers contract that March. No other team signed him. He filed a collusion grievance in October 2017. Reid filed a similar complaint. Both reached a confidential settlement with the league in 2019. Neither returned to an NFL roster.

His last known workout was with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2022. In 2023 he wrote the New York Jets after Aaron Rodgers was injured and offered to join the practice squad. The Jets did not bring him in.

After George Floyd’s death in 2020, Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league had been wrong not to listen to players who spoke about racism. Social-justice messages in end zones and on helmets followed and are slated to continue in 2026. Kaepernick said that shift has not changed his standing, or Reid’s.

His memoir, “The Perilous Fight,” is due Sept. 15. The book will cover what led to the protest and what followed. Whether any team ever puts him back on a roster remains the unfinished part of the story he is still telling.