Colin Kaepernick calls the national anthem a ‘bad song’ in blunt new interview
Colin “Take-a-Knee” Kaepernick has spent the past decade explaining why he would not stand for the national anthem. This week, he went further. He said the song itself is not even good.
Kaepernick appeared on The Adam Friedland Show to promote his new memoir. Friedland asked a simple question. Is ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ actually a good song? Kaepernick did not hesitate.
“Yeah, it’s a bad song,” Kaepernick said, after Friedland pressed him on whether he thought the anthem was musically “wack.”
It was a throwaway line in a long conversation. But the timing matters. Kaepernick’s memoir, ‘The Perilous Fight’, hit shelves this week. He has used the press run to revisit the 2016 protest that ended his NFL career.
The hosts kept talking, tossing around ideas for a new anthem. Friedland joked about swapping in Atlanta rapper Future’s ‘March Madness’. Kaepernick played along, calling it a “great choice” and saying he was “not mad at that.”
The exchange was loose and comedic. But coming from Kaepernick, even a joke about the anthem carries weight. His kneeling protest turned the song into the center of a national argument almost a decade ago.
Kaepernick has never walked back that protest. He started by sitting during the anthem in 2016.
He later switched to kneeling after talking with former Green Beret Nate Boyer, who suggested the gesture as a way to honor service members while still making his point.
Colin Kaepernick’s Career Is Still Defined By One Decision
The quarterback has not thrown an NFL pass since January 2017. He was 29 that season, just three years removed from a Super Bowl trip with the San Francisco 49ers. He was still playing at a high level. No team has called since.
Kaepernick filed a collusion grievance against the NFL in 2017. He argued owners worked together to keep him out of the league because of his activism. He reached a confidential settlement in 2019. He still says the blackballing was real and deliberate.
He has said he trains most mornings, keeping his body ready in case a roster spot opens up. He is 38 now. That window is closing fast, if it has not closed already.
His platform has not slowed down at all. Between the memoir, recent honors from groups like the ACLU, and his ongoing work with Know Your Rights Camp, Kaepernick has built a second act outside the sport that made him famous.
He is also set to receive the Muhammad Ali Center’s Humanitarian of the Year Award later this year. Know Your Rights Camp, the group he co-founded in 2015, has now backed more than $575 million in contributions to grassroots and national partners. None of that erases the football career he lost, but it has given him a platform most retired quarterbacks never get.
Calling the anthem a bad song will not reopen old wounds. It just adds a little more salt. For a man who already accepted that his career ended the moment he took a knee, a jab at the song’s quality is a minor footnote. But it guarantees one more news cycle built around Colin Kaepernick, the anthem, and a fight that never really ended.
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Original Article Source: NBA News & Analysis Archives – Fadeaway World
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