Colin Kaepernick’s recent remarks about comparing the NFL draft combine to the slave trade generated a lot of responses last week, many of them critical of the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback.
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many → compare → quarterback
Obviously, to any sane, normal, logical, and rational person, comparing the horrific institution of slavery to the billion-dollar athletic empire that is the NFL is laughable and unquestionably offensive.
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that → compare → empire
One such person is former NFL player Jack Brewer, who ripped the quarterback-turned-left-wing activist for making such a foolish comparison.
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who → rip → comparison
Brewer, who was a team captain in the NFL for the Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, and Philadelphia Eagles, called Kaepernick’s comments sad, while noting they were rife with hypocrisy.
“I pray for Colin Kaepernick and anyone who supports his ideals and his way of thinking,” Brewer told the Washington Examiner.
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Brewer → call → Examiner
At the end of the day, I think it’s an act.
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it → think → day
I can’t comprehend someone really believing what he says.
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he → comprehend → what
Out of one side of his mouth, he compares professional football and the process it takes to play it to slavery, and out of the other side of his mouth, he says he wants to come back and play at 40 years old.
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he → compare → mouth
I don’t understand it.”
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I → understand → it
Kaepernick originally made the controversial (and arguably foolish) comments on his 2021 Netflix series, Colin in Black & White.
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Kaepernick → make → Black
“What they don’t want you to understand is what is being established is a power dynamic,” Kaepernick narrated in the 2021 series.
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Kaepernick → want → series
“Before they put you on the field, teams poke, prod, and examine you, searching for any defect that might affect your performance.
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that → put → performance
No boundary respected.
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boundary → respect → ?
No dignity left intact.”
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dignity → leave → ?
Brewer told the Washington Examiner about his own experience at the NFL combine.
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Brewer → tell → combine
He called it “miserable” and said that no prospective player liked going through it because of its difficulty.
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player → call → difficulty
But Brewer said he also understands why it was necessary.
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it → say → ?
“My experience with the NFL Combine is that it’s miserable for anybody,” Brewer said.
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Brewer → ’ → anybody
“You’re woken up early.
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You → wake → ?
You’re put through a lot of stress.
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You → put → stress
You’re prodded and pulled, and you have to perform under high pressure.”
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you → prod → pressure
“Did I like the combine?
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I → like → combine
No,” he added.
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he → add → ?
“But I understood why they did it, because they wanted to know who was going to break.
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who → understand → it
I can tell you that the combine process was no harder than playing on Sundays, having to play through injuries, having to learn a playbook that changed from week to week, and having to take on the pressures of the National Football League — preparing your mind and your body knowing that you’re going to physically take years off your life and jeopardize your future safety, your brain function, and everything else that you sacrifice.”
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you → tell → that
“I understand why they put you through the combine and why they do what they do, because this game is not for everybody,” Brewer said.
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Brewer → understand → everybody
“Colin Kaepernick knows that.
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Kaepernick → know → that
Ryan Clark knows that.
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Clark → know → that
Any NFL player knows that.”
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player → know → that
Kaepernick’s words about the combine were resurrected during an interview on fellow race-baiter, left-wing activist, sports commentator, and former NFL player Ryan Clark’s Pivot podcast.
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words → resurrect → baiter
The recently fired ESPN sports personality asked Kaepernick when he had the revelation that getting paid millions of dollars to play in front of tens of thousands of adoring fans once a week was essentially the same thing as forced servitude in the 17th through 19th centuries.
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paid → fire → centuries
“When did you truly start to have the realization that, ‘Hey, this does, in this cinch, remind me of the slave trade?” Clark asked Kaepernick.
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Clark → start → Kaepernick
“When you get to the point that’s like, yeah, strip down to your drawers,” Kaepernick said.
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Kaepernick → get → drawers
“‘Well, like, why do I need to do this?’
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I → need → this
But also, I mean, guess this is what I have to do, and everybody is doing it like, all right, this is part of the process.”
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this → mean → process
“You have a high level sense of like, you know, it feels like it’s a meat market,” he added.
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he → have → sense
“But, at that point in time, I didn’t have the historical perspective to be able to tie those together in such a parallel.
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I → have → parallel
Unfortunately, I was never able to come close to playing in the NFL.
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I → come → NFL
Yet, doing so would have been an absolute dream.
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doing → do → ?
There are hundreds, thousands, millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people who would have loved to don the uniform of an NFL franchise and line up on the gridiron to play.
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who → be → gridiron
All of them would have gone through the process at the draft combine to get that chance.
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All → go → chance
…and 31 more, not listed.
The Aporia
