The NFL saw a severe dip in ratings last season likely due to a culmination of factors including the election, poor play, bad matchups and the situation involving Colin Kaepernick. Many protested the league for allowing Kaepernick to sit during the National Anthem in protest of racial injustices and police brutality.
A season later, with the former 49ers QB still remaining unsigned, a group of people behind Kaepernick are boycotting the league for an opposing reason.
Suspecting Kaepernick is being blackballed by league owners as retribution for his protest, 175,000 people and counting have signed a Change.org petition titled ‘#NoKaepernickNoNFL – Boycott NFL Games If Colin Kaepernick Doesn’t Play This Season’.
The petition, targeting the NFL and it’s commissioner Roger Goodell, is attempting to get as many fans as possible to refuse to watch NFL football until a team signs Kaepernick, as well as boycott the league’s sponsors.
You can see the petition in full here.
The petition reads –
On August 26, 2016, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat down during the National Anthem before the 3rd preseason game of the upcoming 2016 NFL season. Right after the game, he told NFL Media why he sat during the anthem, prompting his now-famous statement:
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
Never before, since the great Muhammad Ali’s refusal to serve in Vietnam in 1967, has an athlete taken such a direct stance highlighting the injustices of people of color — and just like Ali, the reaction to Kaepernick’s stance has been met with passionate responses, often times divided by the color line.
Since that statement, Kaepernick “upgraded” his protest to a knee, announced a plan to donate $1 million to the charities that focused on racial issues (which he followed through), had great support from some of his teammates, NFL colleagues, athletes from all sports levels (starting from junior high), and fans by taking a knee during anthems.
Best of all, Kaepernick’s protest made the conversation about “racial/police brutality” front-page for the large part of the NFL season, a feat never done before in its history.
Because he needed to start, Kaepernick also restructured his contract during the 2016 season, taking away the final 4 years and reworking it into a 2-year deal (with a 1-year player option) — allowing him to leave after the season if he chooses, which he did.
Since then, no one has offered Colin Kaepernick, a Super Bowl QB just a few years ago, a NFL job despite cries from NFL Players and analysts, both black and white. He also has a better Total Quarterback Rating (QBR) than half the backup quarterbacks signed right now.
This shows that the NFL Owners are not willing to bring Kaepernick into their team because — according to many fans — he is a “distraction”. A man who protested because of injustices towards people of color is pretty much blackballed in a league that is 70% Black.
If you are appalled by this, then show your power by boycotting the NFL until Kaepernick gets signed to a team. This means to not watch any games, no social media comments about your favorite team before/during/after the games, don’t attend the stadiums, and don’t buy any merchandise which represents the league or your favorite team.
We understand the NFL is very important to you. We also understand the purpose of Colin Kaepernick’s protest is FAR more important than any games you will ever watch. Simply put, if things stay the same for the way America — where “all men are created equal” — treats people of color, then your loved ones, friends, and children will eventually be affected as well.
Finally, this situation really shines a light on how much the NFL really cares about its Black athletes. It’s pretty much: Play for us, entertain us, make us money, and shut up.
Since we reached our initial goal of 100,000 signatures, here’s a pic of the 32 NFL Owners we already mailed.
Our new goal is 1 MILLION signatures by the start of the NFL Regular Season. Afterwards, we will mail every NFL Sponsor (all 37 of them) a letter asking them to reconsider their relationship with the league.
NFL Sponsors are listed below (the CEOs):
Gatorade & Pepsi & Quaker – Indra K. Nooyi
Anheuser-Busch – João Castro Neves
USAA – Stuart Parker
Bose – Bob Marseca
Marriott – Arne M. Sorenson
Xbox & Microsoft – Satya Nadella
News America – Martin Garofalo
SAP – Bill McDermott
McDonalds – Steve Easterbrook
New Era – Chris Koch
Nike – Mark Parker
Extreme Networks – Ed Meyercord
Nationwide – Steve Rasmussen
TD Ameritrade – Tim Hockey
Zebra – Anders Gustafsson
Dannon – Emmanuel Faber
Hyundai – Jerry Flannery
EA Sports – Andrew Wilson
VISA – Alfred F. Kelly Jr
Campbell’s Soup – Denise M. Morrison
FedEx – Frederick W. Smith
Frito-Lay – Vivek Sankaran
Mars Snackfood – Grant F. Reid
Dairy Management, Inc. – Thomas Gallagher
SiriusXM – James E. Meyer
Under Armour – Kevin Plank
Bridgestone – Gordon Knapp
Ticketmaster – Michael Rapino
Procter & Gamble – David S. Taylor
Verizon – Lowell C. McAdam
Barclays – Jes Staley
Papa John’s – John Schnatter
Castrol – Mandhir Singh
Ford – James Hackett
#NoKaepernickNoNFL
P.S.: If you already have a NFL package (Sunday ticket, etc.)…please cancel / unsubscribe.
