Seahawks Defensive Lineman: 'Colin Kaepernick Is Being Blackballed By NFL'
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – NFL players are coming to the defense of quarterback Colin Kaepernick saying he's being blackballed by the NFL for taking a knee during the national anthem.
Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett is the most recent player to come out in support of the quarterback.
During the 2016 season Kaepernick refused to stand for the national anthem as a form of protest against police brutality.
That rubbed fans and other players the wrong way.
Kaepernick, the former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, has been without a job for more than three months.
In that time he's only visited with one team about the job, the Seattle Seahawks.
CBS Sports says ultimately the Seahawks decided to pass on the quarterback, despite head coach Pete Carroll admitting that Kaepernick was a fantastic football player.
Bennett says it's just more proof that Kaepernick is being blackballed by the NFL.
In an interview this week Bennett was asked if he felt Kaepernick was being blackballed.
"Of course I think Kaepernick is being blackballed," Bennett told Power 105.1.
"Obviously, all the stuff to do with the issues, I think nobody likes race and politics in sports," Bennett said. "I think it's one of the things that nobody really wants to talk about. For him to bring up race and politics in sports, I think it struck a lot of people in the wrong way. You watch the people that really watch football, it's middle America and the people that buy tickets to the game aren't really African-American people, and for him to bring that into that crowd was one thing that people felt like shouldn't of been there."
CBS Sports reported there was some chatter that the Seahawks passed on Kaepernick because they didn't want to bring in competition for current starting quarterback Russell Wilson.
