Eagles Owner Jeffrey Lurie Is No Fan of Colin Kaepernick

Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie may not be entirely against NFL players becoming social justice activists, but he doesn’t find the Kaepernick-inspired protests to be “very respectful.”

Last week, Lurie was asked if he would sign Colin Kaepernick to the Eagles if they needed a quarterback. Initially, the owner simply said that the team was happy with what they had and didn’t need any other quarterbacks. Though, minutes later, Lurie launched into a more detailed set of comments on the former 49ers player:

I don’t think anybody who is protesting the national anthem, in and of itself, is very respectful. If that’s all their platform is, is to protest the national anthem, then what’s the proactive nature of it? But I think we sometimes can misinterpret what those are. I’ve talked to Malcolm Jenkins about it. He’s very involved in our community here. That’s my involvement with Malcolm. It’s ‘What can you do as a player to be involved in the community?’ Whether it’s social justice, whether it’s autism–you name it. There are opportunities to really be proactive. We, as a franchise, try to be as proactive as you can be as a sports franchise. We hope we’ll get more and more proactive.

While he doesn’t kneel, Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins raises a fist during the playing of the national anthem. Now, one simply cannot legitimately claim that Lurie is a “racist,” or someone who leans right politically.

Jeffrey Lurie is the same owner who drafted Donovan McNabb and gave Michael Vick his second chance at the NFL, after coming out of prison. On the political side, the Eagles owner has a long history of donating cash to Democrats. He is no fan of President Donald Trump and donated to Hillary during the late contest for the White House. He also recently insisted that both the GOP and the Democrats are not leading America forward.

Lurie also made news by telling Eagles strong safety Malcolm Jenkins that he supports his national anthem protest.

So, Lurie is neither entirely against protesting if it results in something concrete nor is he right-leaning politically.

The Lurie doctrine seems to be: anthem protests are tolerable, so long as they’re backed-up by real community activism. A benchmark that he believes his player, Malcolm Jenkins, has achieved. While, obviously, believing that Kaepernick has not.

As Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes notes, there is a big, big difference between what Jenkins and Kaepernick have done off the field.

Yes, Kaepernick has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to causes — including a recent donation to help illegal aliens protest the U.S.A.  Jenkins has also put his money where his mouth is.

However, the similarities seem to end there. As Hayes notes, Kaepernick has more or less let others do the actual activism and has been nearly silent since he became a free agent last year. On the other hand, Jenkins has involved himself in many causes, made many appearances, and worked directly with several groups that are pushing the causes he supports.

Hayes writes:

Kaepernick has been little more than a symbol. Yes, he put his money where his mouth is and has donated $900,000 of a pledged $1 million to various social causes. But he hasn’t been heard from or seen much. He sponsored and attended three Know Your Rights Camps aimed at inspiring youth to seek education and to manage interactions with police. He has refused to conduct interviews since January.

By comparison, since January, Jenkins has spoken with a U.S. senator, delivered an address at an Ivy League law school, visited inmates at a state prison, helped the ACLU in a voter drive, and spoken in front of a congressional committee in Washington. He’ll talk about any, and all, of it at any time with anybody.

What has Kaepernick done? Well, he said the U.S. “has never been great.” He called the police “pigs” by wearing socks with cartoon police pigs on them. He outraged America’s Cuban immigrants by complimenting murderous communist dictator Fidel Castro and also wore a T-Shirt lionizing the murderous dictator.

Kaepernick has never apologized for any of these outrageous statements.

So, in Jeffrey Lurie’s estimation, Kaepernick is just a provocateur without much integrity and deserves no respect.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.