I didn’t watch the NFL for almost the past two years.  I think I’ve watched one or two games total. The reason was because of the national anthem protests. As a point of clarification, I firmly believe these men have the right to protest, and I support their right to protest.  They have a right to protest, but Americans have a right not to support the company that refuses to discipline their employees for conduct detrimental to the brand, something that the NFL has lacked the guts to follow through on.  But I feel personally that their choice of time for these protests is inappropriate.  Again, I’m not saying they shouldn’t protest racial inequality, police brutality, or anything else they want to protest, I just feel it’s disrespectful to do so during the national anthem, and inappropriate to do so while in uniform on “company time.”

Imagine your spouse died, and I showed up to officiate the funeral. During the middle of the funeral I started railing against the evils of abortion, or human trafficking, or something like that.  You would be upset with me because that’s not why I’m there, and it would be inappropriate to do that during the funeral.

Imagine it’s your son’s sixth birthday party and you’ve hired someone to perform magic during the party, and in the middle of his magic act he decided to protest the Chinese occupation of Tibet.  Inappropriate.

I didn’t hear anything about Colin Kaepernick for the past six months since the Super Bowl.  But the NFL is starting up,  and he’s back. And now evidently he’s become the focus of an ad campaign for Nike.  Some well-meaning people who dislike the protests have decided to burn their Nike purchases, and/or boycott the company.  Personally I feel that Nike’s record of using child labor is a much better reason not to use their products, though by reports they are attempting to curb this practice.  It’s hard for me to say I’m going to boycott Nike since I don’t really buy their products already.  Kind of like me boycotting Outback Steakhouse. I’ve never eaten there.  If I suddenly decide to boycott them, they wouldn’t notice.  And I don’t think I would boycott Nike anyway for this.  They made a corporate decision to display the face of someone I disagree with as their spokesman.  That is their right.

And when it comes down to it, has Colin Kaepernick done anything illegal or morally wrong?  Not really.  Disrespecting the flag isn’t covered in the Bible.  Respect for authority is, but there is disagreement among veterans, NFL owners, and government officials about  whether or not these protests actually constitute disrespect.  I would much rather save my outrage for things that really matter, like the 3000 babies that are murdered every day in US abortion clinics or the fact that Republicans (the “pro-life party”) have controlled all three branches of government (only four of the justices on the Supreme Court were appointed by Democrats) for the past two years, and yet the government is STILL giving over $500 million per year to Planned Parenthood, which does do some good things for people, but they also kill babies.   So no, I’m not worried about Colin.  I’ve got bigger fish to fry.

I’m tired of Colin Kaepernick.  I’m tired of racism.  But neither is going away anytime soon.