Colin Kaepernick Still Has A "Passion" To Play Football, Twitter Has Thoughts

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Colin Kaepernick says that despite the backlash to his anthem protests and the settlement he received in the collusion case related to it, he still wants to play football.

Kaepernick talked to CBS News in the wake of the release of his new graphic novel, Colin Kaepernick: Change the Game, co-written with Eve L. Ewing, a professor and sociologist at the University of Chicago.co

In 2019, Kaepernick and former NFL safety Eric Reid, won their case that the NFL colluded against them by denying them employment for speaking out about racism. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Kaepernick then tried to return to the league, doing a controversial workout in a Kunta Kinte T-shirt for multiple teams in  2017. In 2022, he worked out for the Raiders as well, to mixed reviews, but was not picked up.

He says that as a child struggling with his racial identity, he found community in football as opposed to playing baseball where he also excelled. The former San Francisco 49’er, who took his team to Super Bowl XLVII in a losing effort against the Baltimore Ravens, says he is still in shape.

“Five, six days a week I’m still up at 4:30, I go get my training in. Yeah, that passion is still there and the ability is still there,” he said.

The book details what it was like for Kaepernick growing up with white adoptive parents in Turlock, California. He says that his parents had their moments of racism, as evidenced by a battle over his hairstyle. His mother, Teresa Kaepernick, objected to him wearing cornrows, saying it made him look like a “little thug.”

“I know my parents loved me, but there were still very problematic things that I went through,” he told CBS. “I think it was important to show, ‘No, this can happen in your own home.’ And how do we move forward collectively while addressing the racism that is being perpetuated.”

This quote trended on Twitter with the hashtag ‘ungrateful POS’ Friday afternoon. But others also spoke up in his defense on the subject of transracial adoption.

“I know that most reactions to Colin Kaepernick these days are simply a way to show what political team one is on, but if you haven’t experienced transracial adoption, you might want to sit this one out and listen for a minute. It’s more complicated than you imagine,” posted Dr. Travis Heath, a California-based psychologist who has worked with the NBA.

He added, “To paint motives of adoptive parents as purely altruistic is to miss a large part of their psychology that includes personal reasons that have nothing to do with the well-being of the child.”

See how Twitter’s reacting to Kaepernick still wanting to return to the NFL below

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