Colin Kaepernick has said he’d stand for future national anthems, and as soon as someone gives him a job he probably will.
But his former 49ers teammates say their days of kneeling for the anthem are over.
According to Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area, 49ers safety Eric Reid said he and linebacker Eli Harold achieved their goal by raising awareness of the racial inequality which Kaepernick began protesting last year.
“When we started doing that, our goal was to open up the floor to conversation. I believe we’ve achieved that goal,” Reid said. “So now we just want to move forward and just partner with people that’s trying to make a change.
“We accomplished that goal. People talked about it. I think we raised a lot of awareness about issues in this country. And now it’s time to move on to just affecting change.”
Kaepernick has continued his charitable efforts while looking for work, though it’s hard to imagine his high-profile stance last year is helping in that regard. Reid said he’s stayed in touch with Kaepernick, and is surprised his former teammate is still without a team, and he sees a direct correlation.
“It’s surprising. You see some of the other quarterbacks that have been signed around the league and why he hasn’t been, it’s just unfortunate, . . .” Reid said. “It’s unfortunate, it’s sad. People want to shy away from him because of media, PR reasons.
“You’re doing something to better the world. I mean, the guy got a plane sent to Somalia to help with the famine there. He’s been doing things that if it were anybody else in a different situation without the anthem [protest], they’d be praising him and giving him awards for it.”
So far that hasn’t happened for Kaepernick, though tonight’s quarterback land rush will clear up a few jobs and trigger the market for the remaining free agents.