Scrolling through the downloaded albums on his streaming service, the free agent quarterback’s frustration with the inability to find a song is dwarfed by the faux advice bellowing from his television. Settling on “I am not my hair” by India Arie to drown out the noise, Colin Kaepernick hears what he wants to hear. Interrupted by his calendar notifications, he scans his itinerary, making a mental map of the week’s schedule.

Yesterday, while making his rounds at Fox Sports 1, Michael Vick joined “Speak for Yourself” to discuss his journey from being the big man on Virginia Tech’s campus to retiring as an Atlanta Falcon – with multiple 100 million dollar contracts, suiting up for both of Pennsylvania’s NFL teams, and a jail sentence sprinkled in between. Using his life as an example for young players, he was asked to advise the unsigned Kaepernick on ways to navigate situations, when public opinion is not on your side. “First thing we got to get Colin to do is cut his hair”. While Vick swiveled back and forth in his chair looking for an “Amen”, I couldn’t help but to stare in disbelief, waiting for Vick to verbalize a “jk”. He instead shared that Colin is already going through a lot of controversy – with his stance for social justice and whatnot – and suggested Kaep go to the poster on the barbershop wall and choose a style between 18 and 25. All of this in the name of looking more presentable. Later in the segment Jason Whitlock, attempted to compare the response to Vick’s dog fighting controversy with the response to Kaepernick’s exile by the common thread of both quarterbacks growing out the ‘fro and rocking gold chains. Because generally everyone who wears a certain hairstyle and wears a gold chain looks and acts alike.

“Hey Siri…which hairstyles are considered presentable?” As the ROVGBIV color wave indicated Siri was processing the question, I refused to wait for a response because I was asking rhetorically. The precedence of NFL athletes receiving endorsements because of their unique hairstyles and one company filing an insurance policy for an athlete’s hair, reveals their suggestion has no merit. However, their perception of his hairstyle defining his actions does have merit. If perception is reality, then the backlash and hate for Colin speaking up and promoting his organization of change, proves he was right from the beginning. The reality of every NFL team’s refusal to sign the quarterback brings the mindset in which the league operates to the forefront. An attempt to redirect his severance from the league because of poor performance – a performance that if displayed over a 16-game season would arguably be his career best statistical season – is simply a common sleight of hand parlor trick. Despite the noise around him, Colin hasn’t changed. He's still protesting peacefully, and people are still telling him how he should or shouldn’t go about it. But we continue to tell Kaepernick he needs to change.

Photo:Giphy

They reiterated these changes were necessary for a chance to get back in the NFL as if the NFL’s mediocre pay scale is the only way for an educated black man to earn a living. It does provide insight to the lack of wholesale support from other NFL players. The collective “brotherhood” is only present if you stay within the orders and parameters set by the league executives. With the NBA seemingly giving max deals to everyone except the water boy and the other major sport guaranteeing the contracts of their employees; the NFL continues to create a culture where they pass out crumbs, then tell the other players you stole their meal.

They type away in message boards, the fill athlete’s mentions, and they obscenities from their bleacher seats. All in the name of provoking athletes to use their influence and millions of dollars to make their community a better place. It’s ironic how those same people get frustrated when an athlete attempts to do that, but it’s for someone else’s community.

social justice issues

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