Colin Kaepernick and his current teammates with the 49ers had a meeting on Sunday that gave Kaepernick the chance to talk to them about his decision to sit during the national anthem.
Some of those teammates don’t agree with Kaepernick’s position, but none gave the sense that there will be a problem within the team because of the stance he’s taking. The same might not be true if Alex Boone was still on the team.
Boone jumped to the Vikings as a free agent this offseason and the guard said after Sunday’s game that he thinks there would have been a problem if he’d been on the same sideline as Kaepernick when Kaepernick kept his seat while the anthem played before a game.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Boone said in the locker room. “I was upset and disappointed. Like I said earlier, that flag gives you the right to do whatever you want and I understand that. Anquan [Boldin] said that and I agree with that. But at the same time, you have to show some respect, especially in this position we’re in where we’re playing a game for a living. It’s almost like disrespectful when you see all these pictures of these veterans that have no legs and they’re standing up in a wheelchair. I had a brother that served and he lost friends and I know how much it means to him. It’s shameful. I’m a very emotional person. So, I think if I had known that, my emotions would’ve been rolling -- I think we would’ve had a problem on the sideline.”
We’ve seen a wide range of reactions to Kaepernick since Friday night, which illustrates that Americans have the same right to think or say whatever they want about his choice as he had to make it in the first place.