Colin Kaepernick has no shortage of high-profile defenders on the left, and Al Sharpton is definitely one of them.
Sharpton recently spoke to TMZ about his thoughts after a particularly eventful weekend, which saw Kaepernick ditch his NFL organized workout in front of 25 NFL teams, in favor of a workout at a local high school in front of eight teams.
Sharpton believes Kaepernick did the right thing in avoiding the workout.
“I think Kaepernick handled it right,” Sharpton told TMZ Sports. “To have to be told that you’re gonna have to sign some waivers and limit the media is absolutely insulting.
“I think that Kaepernick did the right thing by going to the high school, by opening it to the media, opening it to the public. He is being penalized for standing up for the rights of people, standing up for criminal justice and to try and reduce him to some kind of photo op for the NFL is something that is antithetical for what he stood for and is insulting to the fans and is insulting to the intelligence of the American people.”
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Contrary to what Sharpton says, it is highly unusual to have a workout open to the media during the season. The NFL had already agreed to one of Kaepernick’s outlandish requests by allowing Nike to film a commercial at the event. But the workouts themselves, are always private and there’s no reason why that policy should have been changed for Kaepernick.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn