Colin Kaepernick created a lot of haters with his kneeling in 2016, and Kanye West wanted the former QB to reconcile with one of them.
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Kaepernick had a great start to his NFL career. Sure, he wasn’t the fiery pocket passer that was lighting up NFL defenses, but he had tremendous athletic ability, making him one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the league.
Kaep got his chance when starter Alex Smith went down with an injury, and he made the most of his chance. In the 2012-13 season, Kaepernick started all 16 games after the 49ers decided Alex Smith’s time was up, and he led the 49ers to a 12-4 record on the back of a special defense.
Then, in 2016, Kaepernick decided to kneel during the national anthem, and that’s when things went downhill for the quarterback.
It was certainly a controversial stance to take, but it was a necessary one. Police brutality continues to shake people across the country, and Kaep was simply trying to raise awareness. His protest was non-violent, but people still took issue with it because of how it went against the norm.
He even had president Donald Trump against him. Trump went so far as to say that Kaepernick should be fired for his actions. Kaepernick was under fire from the whole country.
Why did Colin Kaepernick start kneeling? Unbelievable truth behind QB’s decision to choose the iconic form of protest https://t.co/GWhcmxTi2C
— Sportskeeda Pro Football (@SKProFootball) August 15, 2022
Kanye West wanted Colin Kaepernick to smooth things over with Donald Trump
Trump was one of Kaepernick’s biggest haters. He was offended at the gesture, and he really wanted the quarterback to serve some sort of punishment. Donald Trump has an estimated net worth of somewhere between $3 billion and $10 billion.
He called out to NFL owners to “get that son of a bi*ch off the field! He’s fired, he’s fired!” Kanye West has been a big supporter of Donald Trump through his career, and in 2018, he wanted Kaepernick to get back on good terms with the then president.
“I’ve been calling Colin this morning, reaching him, so I can bring Colin to the White House and we can remove that son of bi*ch statement and we can be on the same page,” West said while he donned a ‘Make America Great Again’ cap. He was also sporting a Colin Kaepernick sweatshirt.
11am meetings, amirite @thefader @kanyewest pic.twitter.com/3gtkxzt4I6
— Andy Cohn (@andycohn) September 27, 2018
“We never give up on anyone,” the hip hop icon added as per TMZ. “Let me even make that more positive, we move forward, we give love, we keeping going, we keep having the conversation until the conversation turns to love.”