Former NFL star Dez Bryant is catching heat after claiming that Colin Kaepernick’s 2016 most port had no call to action.
“I respect Colin Kaepernick, but there’s one thing that I don’t respect,” he said. “I said when I get the opportunity, and to get on the stage and say it, I would and I love him to death. So, it ain’t no hate or nothing like that, but brother, you had the biggest opportunity in the world to create jobs, build jobs, give jobs to people,” he said during an interview with the “I Am Athlete” podcast.
“The people that you was talking about, the people you so-called standing up for, the people who stood beside you, the people who lost their jobs because of you,” Bryant continued. “Where you at? I ain’t heard from you.”
Bryant was then asked what Kaepernick’s call to action was.
“There wasn’t one,” he cooly replied. “It’s just like I see all these athletes, I hear them on Twitter, they be writing these cool ass captions. I’d be like, ‘Hey the NFL told you to put out a Black Lives Matter tweet and you did it. But I ain’t see you do it.’ That’s a difference.”
Kaepernick offended the NFL bigwigs by sitting and then kneeling during the national anthem at NFL games. Time and time again, Kaepernick stated that his actions were in protest against police brutality and social injustice. Many other athletes followed suit.
Kaepernick’s protest cost him his NFL career as he was essentially blackballed from the league.
Social media slammed Bryant’s remarks. Sports journalist Jemele Hill summed it up perfectly: