Colin Kaepernick Is Being ‘Used’ By ‘The Left’ To Destroy NFL, Says Jason Whitlock
Fox Sports 1’s Jason Whitlock chimed in with his thoughts on Colin Kaepernick following the controversy surrounding his Nike ad campaign, saying in a recent podcast appearance that the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback is a “pawn” being used by those that want to “bring down” the NFL.
Speaking on TMZ staffer Van Lathan’s The Red Pill podcast, Whitlock again spoke out about Kaepernick and his protest action of kneeling during the national anthem while he was still playing for the 49ers. The veteran journalist said that Kaepernick should “take his protests to City Hall” and not an industry like the NFL that has invested a lot of time and money in making things better for African-American men like themselves.
When Lathan insisted to Whitlock that Colin Kaepernick wasn’t trying to destroy the NFL with his kneeling protests, the Speak for Yourself co-host said that the “road to hell is paved with good intentions,” stressing that the free agent quarterback is mainly a messenger of people who want to bring the league down.
“My position is, he’s a pawn in a game he doesn’t understand,” said Whitlock.
“He’s being used by people that want to destroy the NFL. They think the NFL is the head of the snake in terms of toxic masculinity. They want to bring the NFL down.”
Expounding on his earlier point and responding to Lathan’s question, Jason Whitlock said that he was referring to the “left,” adding that such people are targeting the NFL because it is the “most powerful force” in pop culture, and therefore the epitome of what is considered toxic masculinity. While Lathan “respectfully” disagreed with Whitlock’s comments and countered that Kaepernick’s actions were a sincere protest against social injustice, as TMZ noted, the discussion quickly shifted to the topic of Whitlock’s journalistic career.
President Donald Trump criticized Nike's decision to make Colin Kaepernick one of the faces of its 30th anniversary "Just Do It" campaign, calling it a "terrible message" https://t.co/BsIvgegXNW pic.twitter.com/NjYeJf3a4Q
— CNN (@CNN) September 5, 2018
Despite not having played a down in the NFL since the end of the 2016 season, Colin Kaepernick has remained a polarizing figure among football fans and Americans in general, especially following the launch of Nike’s 30th anniversary “Just Do It” advertising campaign where he was the featured athlete. According to Reuters, this move sparked massive boycotts among consumers, who also burned their Nike shoes or sold their shares in the company in response to the athletic apparel maker’s decision to feature the 30-year-old quarterback as the face of its new ad campaign.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, this is not the first time that Jason Whitlock has been critical of Colin Kaepernick and his activism. On a September 2017 episode of Speak for Yourself, Whitlock questioned Kaepernick’s credibility as someone pushing for racial equality and other causes, calling him a “millionaire quarterback” who had a comfortable upbringing far removed from less privileged African-American communities.
“He’s the embodiment of everything that’s wrong with America…he’s a figment of social justice warriors’ imagination,” said Whitlock at the time.
