Colin Kaepernick is the gift that keeps on giving. The former San Fransisco 49ers quarterback just recently decided to throw some shade at Jay-Z for not standing up for the national anthem during the 2020 Super Bowl.
If you’ll recall, Kaepernick was the one who infamously made taking a knee during the pre-game an act of protest to police brutality and the perceived unjust killings of several African-Americans. While he didn’t invent ‘the kneel’, he certainly propagated it, even collaborating with Jay-Z for spreading awareness about the injustices in an initiative. Ironic. Truly ironic.
While it is believed that Jay-Z, along with his wife, Beyonce, and their child, Blue Ivy, was remaining seated during the anthem for the causes Kaepernick and he established years before, there hasn’t been a formal explanation.
Regardless, people on social media have taken issue with the family ‘disrespecting’ the national anthem, the country, veterans, you name it. Well, add Kaepernick to the list of people that disapprove of Jay-Z’s move. Following the game, the former NFL quarterback posted to his Instagram story a headline detailing the family’s decision to sit. Along with it was an emoji of Kaepernick looking perplexed with the caption “I thought we were ‘past kneeling’ tho”.
So what’s going on here? And why is Kaepernick calling out Jay-Z for sitting during the national anthem? Well, according to reports, when Kaepernick and Jay-Z collaborated to form an initiative that would challenge the social injustices of police brutality, it was Jay-Z who shared that their movement was ‘past kneeling’ and needed more effective methods for promoting awareness.
The Brooklyn native’s idea of moving on from kneeling was captured in a New York Times interview just prior to the Super Bowl where he shared that something else needed to be done because people were still dying. “No one is saying he hasn’t been done wrong. He was done wrong, Jay-Z said. “I would understand if it was three months ago. But it was three years ago and someone needs to say, ‘What do we do now—because people are still dying?”
Regardless of whether the two agree about kneeling and its effectiveness for the initiative, it seems that there might be some more beef between the two that most people don’t know about.
Let’s rewind a little bit to last year where Kaepernick was given a shot to have NFL scouts watch him try out. It was an opportunity for him to get back in the league and resume his career as a football player. Prior to that point, no one was giving him the light of day. Who helped him land that try out? You got it. Jay-Z.
So, when the tryout turned into a media circus and publicity stunt, it deeply infuriated the rapper, probably because he put his neck on the line for the ostracized quarterback. Jay-Z’s comments following the debacle enunciated his frustration.
Kaepernick EXPOSES NFL Waiver Problem – @rickstrom #Kaepernick #NFL #NFLcba pic.twitter.com/I87uIws3cc
— TYT Sports (@tytsports) January 23, 2020
So the real question here, no matter how superficially ironic Jay-Z’s actions are, is did the legendary rapper sit because he was resuming a protest for the social injustice initiative or was it to spite Kaepernick?
We’re not sure, but it seems at this point either of those situations is equally plausible. Until we get a statement from Jay-Z, it’s likely we’ll never know the true motive. One thing’s for sure, though. The two of them probably won’t settle their differences at any point in the near future.
