Donald Trump May Have Intervened With Colin Kaepernick's Signing And Fans Are Furious

Gettyimages | Alex Wong

Gettyimages | Matt Winkelmeyer

The controversy around former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began on September 1, 2016, when he knelt during the National Anthem to protest police brutality. Since then, he's lost his position and been a lightning rod at the center of a contentious political conversation.

It came out on Sunday morning that President Trump may have used his financial sway with many team owners in the NFL to prevent Kaepernick from getting a spot on the team.

Gettyimages | NICHOLAS KAMM

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith explained on Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning that team owners could potentially lose billions of dollars in revenue if they went against Trump, who has been vocal in his hatred of Kaepernick. The NFL is currently trying to get gambling legalized, and that requires the thumbs up from the President and Congress.

"Well, what was going on on Capitol Hill is that the owners, the NFL owners were trying to get involved with that, where they were trying to get a percentage of the bets and all of this other stuff that was going on. So what happens is, we’re talking billions. Well, guess what? In order for that to happen, you need Congress to sign off on it and you need the President to sign off on it. What you don’t need is the President turning his attention towards you and going against you just because he doesn’t like you."

Fans were outraged by this news, arguing that Kaepernick has been punished for too long. Many pointed out that Antonio Brown, who has been accused of rape and sexual assault, has been given multiple changes despite the horrific allegations.

Even former Fox News pundit Gretchen Carlson thinks that the Kaepernick business is over the top.

Still, as is the case with anything political, there are plenty of people tweeting their continued boycotting of Kaepernick. He'll likely be an incendiary figure no matter how this deal shakes out.

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