Bizarre end to Colin Kaepernick saga

THE bizarre journey of the man who kept our attention at the 49ers after Jarryd Hayne left has taken a new twist.

Colin Kaepernick’s 49ers jersey will live on in a museum.

JARRYD Hayne drew our attention to the San Francisco 49ers and Colin Kaepernick kept it there.

The quarterback, who is now a free agent after opting out of the final year of his contract, is looking to make a mark outside of the Bay Area after a strange couple of years in which he’s struggled on the field and made headlines off it.

Kaepernick rediscovered some of his best form in the back half of last season, recording the fifth-best touchdown-to-interception ratio (14-3) among all starting quarterbacks in the NFL.

But it was his decision to take a knee during the American national anthem before games that divided the US and shone a spotlight on the issues of police brutality and racial injustice in America.

While Kaepernick’s football career is now in limbo, there’s been a strange conclusion to his activism with the 49ers after his jersey found a home at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC.

While he’s being touted as a possible back-up to Russell Wilson at the Seattle Seahawks, Kaepernick’s No. 7 is being hung up in one of America’s most famous institutions.

Famous American sociologist Harry Edwards donated some of Kaepernick’s belongings to the museum last year, including a jersey he wore during one of his protests. The items are not currently on display but are expected to put on rotation in an exhibit within two years, USA Today reports.

“I said, ‘Don’t wait 50 years to try to get some memorabilia and so forth on Kaepernick,’” Edwards said. “‘Let me give you a game jersey, some shoes, a picture … And it should be put right there alongside Muhammad Ali. He’s this generation’s Ali.’”

The Ali comparison — made because the boxing legend refused to fight in the Vietnam War when he said he suffered more injustice at the hands of Americans than Vietnamese — is a comparison former NFL star Shannon Sharpe can see.

Kaepernick divided opinion with his controversial stance.

“I believe in 15, 20, 50 years from now, history will look fondly upon Colin Kaepernick and the stance that he took for the betterment of minorities,” Sharpe said.

“See, people have a hard time looking at Colin Kaepernick as a Dr (Martin Luther) King, as a Muhammad Ali, or as a Ms Rosa Parks because they’re looking at these iconic figures 50 years after the fact.

“But I can assure you that when Ms Parks did what she did, I’m sure there were some blacks in her very community that said, ‘Why wouldn’t she give up her seat? She had given up her seat so many times before, why is she causing a scene now?’ Just like they said about Colin Kaepernick, ‘This police brutality has been going on, why now?’

“I’m sure when Muhammad Ali took the stance that he took ... prominent black athletes came together to show their support for Muhammad Ali and they asked, ‘Why wouldn’t he go fight?’

“I’m sure they said the very same thing about Dr King: ‘He’s a troublemaker. He’s a rabble-rouser’ … They did everything they could to undermine him. ‘If you do not like the message, let’s try and undermine and discredit the messenger.’ Some of the very things that Colin Kaepernick is going through.

“At some point in time — I don’t know when, I don’t know where, I don’t know how — but Colin Kaepernick had an evolution, had an epiphany that he had a greater calling than playing football, playing quarterback in the NFL.”

Originally published as Bizarre end to Colin Kaepernick saga