As a protest
Kaepernick's protest was against continued oppression of non-whites. There had been an increasing number of high profile killings of African Americans by police, and a lack of judicial consequences for the police officers. He said "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color... There are bodies in the street and people getting...away with murder". In later games he knelt instead of sitting, and as players, coaches, other athletes and others joined the protest over the next months the protest became known as taking "the knee". In 2017 Kaepernick opted out of his contract with his club. The USA President, Donald Trump, claimed he would use social media, Twitter, to create a public relations crisis for any team that then signed him.
