It is a strange world when a brash young man, a multinational corporation with a reputation for running sweatshops and a Twitter-happy American President combine to convince you that American football is more than a bunch of grown men piling over each other. It just might be the stuff that legends are made of.
Taking on Trump
The story began in 2016 when Colin Kaepernick, a football player with the San Francisco 49er team, chose to kneel on one knee instead of standing when the American national anthem was being played before a nationally televised football game. Kaepernick chose kneeling as a way of drawing attention to needless deaths of African-Americans at the hands of the police and vigilantes — while demonstrating his respect for the anthem. Instead of focussing on the cause Kaepernick was trying to highlight — Black Lives Matter movement — U.S. President Donald Trump chose to make him a whipping post by tweeting in September 2017, “If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL, or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect… our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!”
Kaepernick was in the process of renegotiating his contract and found no professional football team willing to sign him, even as they were signing up players who appeared to have an inferior record. For the past two years, Kaepernick has been unable to find work, and he is suing the National Football League (NFL) for illegal collusion to keep him out of the game in response to political pressure. Recently, athletic shoe and apparel manufacturer Nike signed him as the face of their new advertising campaign and instantly became target of Mr. Trump’s tirade where he called for a boycott of the company. Mr. Trump’s supporters have mounted a boycott and the Nike share price has fallen. Regardless of the market risk, the company has chosen to stick to its guns and even increased Kaepernick’s coverage.
With everything to lose
All good stories need heroes and villains. The irony of this story is that we are handed unlikely heroes and villains. We have Kaepernick, a brash young man with tattoos, who is often considered an egotist. It would be easy to dismiss his protest as a way of seeking the limelight. However, the magnitude of his sacrifice can only be understood if we remember that as a young college student, Kaepernick was seen as a rising baseball star, while he loved another sport, football. He was offered a professional contract to play for one of the well-known baseball teams that he turned down to continue to play football at a time when his future in football was uncertain. For a man who loves football this much, to walk away from it in order to continue to speak truth to power is a profile in courage that few can match.
There is not much to be said about a President who uses his bully pulpit to target friends and foes alike. However, it is strange that a country that has always taken pride in the freedom of expression chose to see kneeling rather than standing for the national anthem as a sign of disrespect but has no problem with seeing its national flag on towels and bathing trunks. Strangest of all is Nike, the poster child for corporate greed thriving on sweatshops in poor countries, choosing to make a stand against government pressure and buyer boycotts to support Kaepernick.
The moments that make history are only recognised in retrospect. Mahatma Gandhi picked up a pinch of salt in Dandi and changed the fate of British empire. Rosa Parks sat down on a bus in Alabama in a seat reserved for whites and changed the nature of race relations in America. Will Nike by standing up to political and market forces change the nature of corporate citizenship? I hope so.
Sonalde Desai is Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland and Senior Fellow at the National Council of Applied Economic Research. The views expressed are personal