Colin Kaepernick Would Not Be First Bengal To Protest Anthem

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There has been talk that the Cincinnati Bengals should replace quarterback Andy Dalton.

Reportedly, some Bengals players are advocating the unit that has scored a scant nine points in two games and looking for their first touchdown, would be better served with currently unemployed Colin Kaepernick.

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Kaepernick has been vilified for refusing to stand properly for the National Anthem to protest how young black men have been treated by police.

The mere suggestion that owner Mike Brown should bring him to the team, have caused fans on social media and talk radio to threaten to boycott the NFL and the Bengals if Kaepernick indeed be signed.

But there is doubt, based on precedent, that fans would follow through.

Brown’s father Paul Brown signed Tommie Smith to an NFL contract in 1969.  Smith played in two games as a wide receiver for Cincinnati that season in the old AFL, catching one pass for 41-yards.

Former Bengal Tommie Smith at Mexico City

There were no sustained protests to Smith being on the Bengals roster.

What makes Smith’s story similar to Kaepernick?

Smith and John Carlos protested the anthem in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.  Smith and Carlos were medal winners.  Smith won the gold medal in the 200 meter race and Carlos won the bronze.  What went largely unnoticed was that Australian silver medal winner Peter Norman wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge in support of Smith and Carlos.

Kaepernick’s protest has similar reasoning behind it, 50 years after Smith’s protest.

The US was in turmoil in 1968.  Peaceful civil rights protests in the south turned violent after the April 4 assassination of leader Martin Luther King.  A violent group the Black Panthers were a product of the nation’s strife. The protests against the Viet Nam war were raging at the same time. 

 In October 1968 Smith from San Jose State and Carlos received their medals standing on the podium without shoes to signify black poverty.  Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride. Carlos un-zipped his track suit to indicate solidarity with blue collar workers, who by and large were those fighting the war while the well-to-do like Donald J Trump was diagnosed with a “foot thingy” and received seven student deferments. 

Avery Brundage, the head of the International Olympic Committee, sighting that political statements were not appropriate at the Olympic Games, ordered Smith and Carlos banned from the US Olympic team and expelled from Olympic Village.  When the US Olympic committee refused, Brundage threatened to ban the entire US team. That resulted in the expulsion of Smith and Carlos.

The hypocrisy of the situation is obvious upon examination that Brundage as the head of the US Olympic Committee in 1936, had no problem with the Nazi salute at the 1936 games in Berlin where Ohio State’s Jesse Owens showed Hitler’s master race as a farce.  Brundage had been accused of being one of the United States' most prominent Nazi sympathisers even after the outbreak of the Second World War,[13][14] and his removal as president of the IOC had been one of the three stated objectives of the Olympic Project for Human Rights.

Kaepernick’s protested the deaths of several unarmed African American youths at the wrong end of a gun held by police officers, who were either never indicted or convicted.

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview. "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."

Several players have joined in similar protests while Kaepernick remains unsigned by any of the 30 NFL teams in spite of the fact he took the San Francisco 49ers to the Superbowl in 2012 after taking over for the injured Alex Smith in midseason.

Cleveland Browns players protested the Anthem on August 22nd before an exhibition game against the New York Giants.  Soon after the incidents in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Seth DeValve, who is married to an African American women, was one of two white players to join 14 African American teammates.

“I wanted to take the opportunity with my teammates during the anthem to pray for our country,” said DeValve, who was quoted in the New York Times. “And also to draw attention to the fact that we have work to do. And that’s why I did what I did.”

Linebackers Jamie Collins and Christian Kirksey; running backs Isaiah Crowell, Duke Johnson, Terrance Magee and Brandon Wilds; safety Jabrill Peppers; DeValve; wide receivers Kenny Britt and Ricardo Louis; and defensive back Calvin Pryor dropped to one knee in a huddle.
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Karpernick was drafted one pick after the Bengals chose Dalton in the 2011 draft out of the University of Nevada. 

Kaepernick’s mother was a 19-year old white woman named Heidi Russo. He was born in Milwaukee.  His father an unknown black man left the family before Kaepernick was born.  The youth was ad\opted by Rick and Teresa Kaepernick, who had a son Kyle and daughter Devon.  The couple lost two male children to heart defects. When Kaepernick was four the family moved to  California.