The last NFL game I watched was in January 2017, a divisional playoff matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys. Anyone who watched that game knows it didn't end well for Dallas. My boy Tinsley chronicled his experience in real-time, exposing people to a day in the life of a Dallas Cowboys fan. It was also the last time Tony Romo would ever wear an NFL uniform as he went on to retire later that calendar year. As was the case after every Cowboys season before that, the disappointment would carry into the later months and I would simply recharge the batteries for more anguish and pain once the 2017 season began.

However, there was no 2017 season for me, because the 2016 season was also the last time Colin Kaepernick would play in the NFL. Once it became obvious as to why he wasn't on a roster and allowed to compete, I renounced my NFL fandom and vowed not to watch another game until he was signed to a NFL roster. I have not watched it since. The way I saw it, if Colin Kaepernick was willing to jeopardize his career on behalf of people who looked like me, then I was willing to give up the NFL as a source of entertainment, no matter how long it had been a fixture in my life.

There is an expression as battle-tested as the days are long and it is very simple: God don't like ugly. That was a reason why it's been easy to not watch an NFL game, not engage in conversations about the NFL with anyone who continues to watch the product for over three years, and why it has been easy to never return. Colin Kaepernick took a knee to highlight systemic oppression against black and brown people and people of color in the United States and, as someone who has been black all my life, I knew exactly what he meant. It was easy to align with what he was doing. It did not take having to bury an unarmed loved one killed by the police for me to be upset. I see myself anytime I see stories of black and brown men who are treated unjustly by American law enforcement. It is impossible not to take it personally when people who lack empathy trivialize your feelings and stance about what has long been an issue in this country.

Recently, Colin Kaepernick declared that he will opt out of his contact with the San Francisco 49ers to become a free agent. On the surface, it seems like no big deal.  An NFL player opting out of his contract to seek new surroundings is something that is done every off-season.  However, every player doesn’t have the attention surrounding them the way Kaepernick had during the 2016 season.  Despite that, it is odd, yet very convenient, to read and hear various opinions on one aspect of Colin Kaepernick’s social awareness and actions of last season and that is his decision to stand for the national anthem.  Some people see it as him “giving in,” and “being influenced by money” or, even more hilarious, “not down for the cause.”  These takes are, at the least, shortsighted and at worst, lazy.