Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall looks around the league now, and he can’t believe the kind of support he’s seeing for the issues that Colin Kaepernick began talking about a year ago.
He also looks around the league and sees enough bad quarterbacks that he can’t believe his old college teammate doesn’t have a job.
“There’s a lot of [poor] quarterback play around the league,” Marshall said, via the Associated Press. “I’m not saying the Bears should sign him, but you know the player Mike Glennon is. You can’t tell me he’s better than Colin Kaepernick, and he’s a starter right now.”
Singling out Glennon may be unfair, because there are plenty of teams playing guys not nearly as accomplished as Kaepernick. But the larger point remains, that the guy who initiated the protests of police brutality and racial inequality that eventually got the attention of President Donald Trump (and thus, the world) is still out of work.
“The dude, he’s in shape — he’s yoked, actually,” Marshall said. “He’s so strong. He’s ready to go. He told me he’s been working out when I last talked to him. He said he’s just waiting for a call. That’s the next step.”
Marshall took a knee throughout last year, and also spent time working with Denver police. When they changed their use-of-force policy, Marshall stood up for the anthem like everyone else.
But Sunday, he was back down to one knee like many around the league.
“Last year, I did it all by myself for eight games, but it’s a lot different to have your brothers backing you,” Marshall said. “I think whenever we decide to come together and do something, there’s strength in numbers, they say, right? So, I definitely think that makes us stronger.”
He was also skeptical of the rising tide of teams standing with locked arms, in a quest to keep diverse locker rooms together by suggesting they are one.
“In my opinion, that means nothing if we all stand and lock arms,” Marshall said. “I mean, I understand that’s showing unity. But I just don’t see the point in it.”
But as both sides try to make as much political hay as possible, things that can be promoted and hashtagged like unity are all the rage, even if people forget what Kaepernick was angry about in the first place.