Colin Kaepernick still gets up at 4.30am every morning to train.
asserted
Kaepernick → get → 4.30am
“Strength training, speed training, position training – still do all of the same type of workouts I did while I was playing,” he says cheerily.
asserted
he → do → workouts
It is almost 10 years since Kaepernick last played a game of top-flight football.
asserted
Kaepernick → play → football
His career was abruptly and cruelly cut short just as it was peaking, after the National Football League (NFL) effectively closed ranks and shut him out for being too political.
asserted
League → cut → him
Now, at 38 years old, he is well aware that his chances of a return are dwindling by the day, but he remains as game-ready as ever.
asserted
he → dwindle → day
“I stay relentless at it,” he continues in his easy drawl.
asserted
he → stay → drawl
“I look at it from the perspective of, ‘What are the things that I can control?’
asserted
I → look → that
And what I know I can control is being prepared for when opportunity knocks, and to also continue knocking, on my end, looking for ways and opportunities … just staying resilient and focused and disciplined – that is what’s gotten me to this point in my life.
asserted
what → know → life
Kaepernick’s story is defined by the events of late 2016, when he repeatedly refused to stand for the pre-match national anthem – resulting in a chorus of booing on the pitch, insults and outrage off it, and exclusion from the sport he still loves.
asserted
he → define → sport
He was one of the biggest names in the game at the time; quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, a national celebrity, sponsored by major brands, and looking back, his actions fed into so much that has happened since: the rise of Donald Trump, the Black Lives Matter protests and a global reckoning with racism, then the backlash against what is now being called “Woke 1.0”, and the resurgence of a white nationalism that the US complacently assumed was in the past.
asserted
US → sponsor → past
Through all of this, Kaepernick has largely held his silence.
asserted
Kaepernick → hold → silence
He has rarely spoken to the media and restrained from making public statements.
asserted
He → speak → statements
Why so, I ask.
asserted
I → ask → ?
Surely there must have been times he’s wanted to speak out?
asserted
he → want → ?
“Oh, absolutely,” he replies.
asserted
he → reply → ?
“But I go back to, like, what am I trying to accomplish by doing so?”
asserted
I → go → what
The temptation to rebut all the lies, the bad takes, the accusations was great, he admits, but, “I realised that, coming out of the protests in 2016, there was a lot of movement and effort made to try to make it as if I was the singular voice in this space doing work, and I was the person solely leading this movement, and that’s just not the reality.”
asserted
that → rebut → movement
In person, Kaepernick is friendly and relaxed, speaking on a videocall from his agent’s office in New York (understandably, he doesn’t like to disclose where he lives or spends his time).
asserted
he → speak → time
Even when he’s talking about the worst moments in his life, which is most of the time in our 90-minute conversation, his face defaults to a smile and he’s quick to laugh.
asserted
he → talk → smile
He’s looking as dapper as ever: black dress shirt, top button done up; neatly trimmed facial hair; his voluminous afro a work of tonsorial topiary.
asserted
afro → look → topiary
The reason Kaepernick is talking now is because he has a new memoir: The Perilous Fight, which details his upbringing, his illustrious sporting career, and the events leading up to and from that pivotal moment in his life.
asserted
which → talk → life
This is not Kaepernick closing off a chapter of his life, he insists, he just felt that now was the time to speak up: “It’s important for where society is, where we’re at as a country, and some of the direction that the world’s heading in, to be able to continue to move things forward.”
asserted
world → close → things
Also, he says, “we’re coming up on the 10-year anniversary.
asserted
we → say → anniversary
So a lot things just naturally aligned.”
asserted
things → align → ?
He doesn’t need to clarify the anniversary he’s referring to.
asserted
he → need → anniversary
Kaepernick’s decision to protest was the culmination of “a lifetime of experiences of being Black in America,” he says.
asserted
he → protest → America
But in the moment, it was also spontaneous: “It is not something I discussed with anyone else.
asserted
I → discuss → anyone
It was a personal belief and conviction, and originally I did it not knowing or thinking anybody would see or ask about it,” he says.
asserted
he → do → it
He didn’t even tell his then fiance (now wife), Nessa Diab.
asserted
He → tell → fiance
The first three times he did it, hardly anyone noticed.
asserted
anyone → do → it
At the 49ers’ preseason game in Santa Clara, California, on 14 August 2016, Kaepernick did not take the knee; he simply sat on a cool box during the pre-match Star-Spangled Banner.
asserted
he → take → Banner
He was recovering from injury and not dressed for the game, so he was inconspicuous.
asserted
he → recover → game
He did the same thing for the next two games.
asserted
He → do → games
By the third time, NFL Network reporter Steve Wyche (who is Black) had clocked it, and spoke to Kaepernick about it.
asserted
who → clock → it
Wyche had also noticed that Kaepernick had been posting all year on his social media about Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, Muhammad Ali, Black Panther co-founder Huey P Newton and Tupac Shakur.
asserted
Kaepernick → notice → X
That January, for example, he had posted a quote from Dr King: “He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
asserted
who → post → it
Kaepernick had certainly been on a journey in terms of his Black history education, partly thanks to Diab – who, a few years earlier, had given him a copy of Malcolm X’s autobiography and told him he’d be “for ever changed”.
asserted
he → give → him
But his decision to act was also motivated by recent police killings of innocent Black men: Mario Woods, shot and killed by five officers in December 2015 in San Francisco, where Kaepernick was living at the time, using what was later judged “unnecessary force”; Alton Sterling, shot and killed in Louisiana in July 2016; Philando Castile, shot and killed in Minnesota the day after Sterling’s death.
asserted
what → act → death
“You then get to a point of, if you understand the problem and you understand the reality and you understand the experience, you either look at yourself in the mirror and say, ‘I’m gonna take action and try to do something about it’, or, ‘I’m not going to, and I’m going to be complicit in this’,” he says.
asserted
he → get → this
The reality had become clear to him: that “the United States is not a representation of my ideals and my beliefs and has not been representing myself or the Black community.
asserted
States → become → myself
…and 155 more, not listed.
The Aporia
