It was 2018 and two Miami Dolphins players, Kenny Stills and Albert Wilson, kneeled before their game against Tennessee in what was the waning months of the protest movement started by Colin Kaepernick two years earlier. What Stills and Wilson did was particularly bold because there weren’t many players still protesting.
Stills was one of the quiet heroes of that time. When I interviewed him for a book about the movement, he spoke about the importance of protesting police violence against people of color.
‘I felt that if I did nothing, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want to look back at my life and say, ‘You could have done something. But you didn’t. You were a coward.”
It’s hard to sometimes remember that time. It’s a historical blur. It’s been altered and memory holed and distorted by bad actors. In essence, it came down to this. Kaepernick used his power as an NFL quarterback to bring attention to police violence against people of color. He was brave and fiery. Eventually, it cost him his job. He hasn’t played in the NFL since. Later, the NFL was forced to apologize for how it treated Kaepernick and protesting players after the murder of George Floyd by a cop.
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Fast-forward to now and the irony is thick. Kaepernick protested against police brutality, and recently one of the highest profile players in the NFL was detained by police who, according to video footage, abused their power, right in front of an NFL stadium, on an NFL Sunday. A stadium, in fact, where protests against police brutality took place.
The echoes of Kaepernick are all over the detainment of Tyreek Hill.
To say Kaepernick was right is obvious but it’s more than that. Of course he was right. But with the ugliness involving Hill he was glaringly right. You couldn’t write a movie script that would say a player protested police abuse and then later another NFL player was seen on recordings being abused. No one would buy that script because it would be absurd.
But this was always Kaepernick’s point. That this type of police overkill is common. He wasn’t the first to make this point. Many Black Americans have. Many Black athletes have. The WNBA did before Kaepernick. He was simply one of the most visible people to address the problem.
Go back to what Kaepernick originally said after his initial protest, and his words then are impactful now.
‘I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,’ Kaepernick said. ‘To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.’
‘This is not something that I am going to run by anybody,’ he said. ‘I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people that are oppressed. … If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right.’
Stills would go on to lead a remarkable life. He’d publicly chastise Dolphins owner Stephen Ross for saying he wanted to fight for equality while also supporting Donald Trump.
‘I think it’s important to understand people can disagree on things and still move forward,’ Stills said in 2019. ‘A lot of the things I’ve talked about are on the basic level of being a human being, being respectful, and really just caring about others, and trying to draw the line in the sand when it comes to hate and divisiveness and inciting violence. That’s where I draw the line. I’m trying to encourage other people to do the same.’
In 2020, Stills was involved in protests over the killing of Breonna Taylor by police. Stills’ action was a classic moment of good trouble.
Kaepernick is no longer physically in the NFL. But in many ways, he never left.
