Colin Kaepernick is still fighting – for justice and for his football career

September 14, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Colin Kaepernick on the Protest That Cost Him the NFL—and Why He Still Won't Stop

The first time Colin Kaepernick understood he was seen as different came when he was eight years old, walking home through his mostly white California town. Three white middle-school boys pulled him to a rose tree, wrapped a rope around him, and laughed while tying him to the trunk. "Go back to Africa," one spat. A neighbor drove by, and the boys scattered. Kaepernick went home, cleaned himself up, and said nothing. He had already learned, he explains, that his white adoptive parents loved him but had a limit on how much blackness they could handle—how he dressed, the music he listened to, who he admired. He didn't think they would believe him. That instinct to protect himself, to navigate a world that saw him differently than his family did, shaped the man who would later kneel during the national anthem and never play in the NFL again.

The Real Origin of the Knee

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What you'll learn

1 (01:41) **A Childhood Incident That Shaped Everything** - Kaepernick reads the opening of his memoir: at age eight, white middle-schoolers in Turlock, CA, tied him to a tree with a rope while yelling racial slurs.
2 (08:11) **Sports as an Objective Escape from Racism** - Kaepernick explains why athletics became his refuge.
3 (09:27) **The 2016 Anthem Protest: The Moment and the Motivation** - Kaepernick describes the night he first sat during the national anthem.
4 (11:58) **Who Really Came Up with Taking a Knee** - Kaepernick corrects the popular media narrative about the origin of the kneeling protest.
5 (15:14) **What Was in His Ears: The Pre-Game Playlist** - Kaepernick explains the mix of revolutionary songs and speeches he listened to before games.
6 (17:09) **Frustration with Media Coverage** - Kaepernick details his beef with how the press handled the protest.
7 (19:02) **The Myth That He Didn’t Want to Play** - Kaepernick pushes back on the rumor that he had lost his desire for football.

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Guests on this episode

Colin Kaepernick Tanya Mosley

Show Notes

It has been 10 years since former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem, in protest of police brutality against Black people. Once the season ended, Kaepernick never played in the NFL again.

"The NFL tried to send a very clear message that if you protest police killing Black folks, if you fight for a better society and better community, we're going to try to take your career from you," he tells Tonya Mosley. "I don't accept that that is going to be the end outcome of this, and will do everything I can to make sure that I change that narrative." Kaepernick has written a memoir called The Perilous Fight. It begins long before the anthem, with his experience as a Black boy adopted by white parents, learning to keep early experiences of racism to himself. He explains why, after all this time, he still wants to play in the NFL, and why he would keep his kids from playing the game.

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