Kelly Stafford, the wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, is now apologizing for her 2016 criticism of Colin Kaepernick’s protests against the country during the national anthem.
The NFL wife took to her Instagram account in abject apology for her initial patriotic reaction to Kaepernick’s anthem protests. She is now vowing to go all in to fight “systemic racism” and “social injustice.”
In her Sunday morning post, Stafford says her note is something the couple has “been thinking and talking about for several months.” Then she apologized for “not listening” to those who have claimed that the protests against the country were never about the flag or the military. The post also tells fans that she and her husband pledged a $350,000 donation to “endow a social justice program for UGA Athletics.”
“When Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem, I had strong feelings about it. Even when he kept saying it had nothing to do with the flag or military, I didn’t listen,” Stafford wrote in her post. “I kept not listening to him or anyone else and let the political rhetoric persuade me that him kneeling was disrespectful to our military.”
But Stafford is now changing her tune: “Over the past several months, I have opened my ears, mind, and heart, and it has opened my eyes to see how wrong I was and for that, I am sorry.
“This systematic racism is not going away unless we ALL work on it by working on ourselves and those around us. It’s time for everyone to do their part to help end this system,” Stafford exclaimed.
She ended saying, “Matthew and I thought this was a good place to start. We are proud to be a part of this program, and we will keep fighting to help end this social injustice. Black Lives Matter.”
But, Stafford was closer to the truth with her first impression of Kaepernick’s protests in 2016.
When the now former NFL player first began his protests, he said quite directly that he could not stand for the American flag. His protest was a direct attack on the flag and the country, and he said so in his own words in August of 2016.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder,” Kaepernick said.
Kaepernick gave other clues about the nature of his protests in 2016, as well. For instance, he wore a shirt praising Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, a mass murderer, and self-professed enemy of America. Kaepernick also showed that he was not just protesting the few police that misbehave when he wore socks that portrayed all police officers as pigs.
Also, in 2016, Kaepernick said that the U.S. was never great, noting that he was standing up against the whole country in general, not just in support of “social justice,” with his anthem protests.
The former NFL player also made his protest about the flag when he forced Nike to ditch its Betsy Ross flag shoes in 2019. Nike announced that it intended to release a patriotic gym shoe with a Betsy Ross Flag theme until Kaepernick ginned up the anti-American left to attack Nike for the proposal. In one of his broadsides against Nike, Kaepernick even claimed that the U.S. Betsy Ross flag was a “symbol of slavery.”
Unsurprisingly, Nike immediately caved in and dumped the plans for the patriotic shoe.
Despite the revisionism about the true meaning of Kaepernick’s protests, all his actions have shown that he means to stand directly against America and everything it stands for.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.