Martin Luther King III wants football fans to give up the NFL until Colin Kaepernick signs with a new team.
The oldest living child of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke to TMZ Sports this week about the continued exile for the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback. Kaepernick has been out of the league since 2016 after sparking a league-wide protest of police brutality against minorities. Kaepernick was the first to start taking a knee during the national anthem, and his supporters say it led to him being blackballed from the league.
MLK III now wants those fans to turn their back on the NFL, telling TMZ Sports that Kaepernick could re-sign with a team “overnight” if they stopped supporting the league until he came back.
“What would change it overnight is if the public decided, ‘Okay, we’re not going to watch,’” he said.
Supporters of Colin Kaepernick have been vocal about his return to the league, noting that other quarterbacks with lesser resumes have signed over and over again while he has been available. Martin Luther King III agreed.
“The industry did blackball him, which is not good,” MLK III said. “He certainly is one of the most talented quarterbacks even today, probably.”
As The Inquisitr reported, there is a chance that Kaepernick could be back in the league very soon. A report from Pro Football Talk noted that the former Super Bowl starter’s camp has been in contact with some of the league’s “quarterback-hungry teams” about the possibility of signing Kaepernick. There has been an unusually high number of injuries through the first two weeks of this season. The Pittsburgh Steelers lost Ben Roethlisberger for the season with an elbow injury; the New Orleans Saints will be without Drew Brees for at least six weeks; the New York Jets lost Sam Darnold indefinitely to a bout with mono and also lost his backup, Trevor Siemian, to a season-ending injury on Monday night.
To the people that say Colin Kaepernick isn’t good enough for the NFL … @mspears96 reminds everyone just how valuable Kap was in the league. pic.twitter.com/jk2lzvw0gK
— First Take (@FirstTake) September 17, 2019
Kaepernick’s camp said he is ready to fill in for one of those quarterbacks — if he gets the call.
“Colin is literally in the best shape of his life,” a source close to Kaepernick told SNY, via PFT. “He’s been working out five days a week at 5 a.m. for three years. He wants to play and his agent has been contacting teams in need of a quarterback.”
The report noted that there is no specific team looking to sign Colin Kaepernick, however.