Kaepernick: 'NFL is actively blackballing me' a decade after kneeling protest

Colin Kaepernick has reignited one of American sport's longest-running controversies, declaring that the NFL is "actively blackballing me" ten years after he first knelt during the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police brutality.

Speaking as the anniversary of his original protest approaches, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback said he has essentially given up on the idea of an NFL return, telling reporters he now shuns the league entirely rather than continuing to hold out hope of a call from a franchise. It is a striking admission from a player who, at his peak, led the 49ers to a Super Bowl and was widely regarded as one of the more dynamic dual-threat quarterbacks in the league before his career stalled after he began kneeling in 2016.

Kaepernick has not played an NFL down since 2016, and in 2019 the league settled a collusion grievance he brought alongside former teammate Eric Reid, though no club has ever admitted wrongdoing. His comments this week, carried by both ESPN and Fox News, suggest he is done waiting for redemption through a roster spot and is instead framing his exile as a deliberate, ongoing act by the league's owners rather than a simple case of his on-field form falling away with age.

The timing matters. A decade on, the NFL has shifted its own public stance markedly, from initial hostility towards protesting players to later gestures of solidarity following George Floyd's murder in 2020. Yet Kaepernick's absence from any roster, even in a backup or camp-arm capacity, has remained a live grievance for supporters who see it as unfinished business.

Whether this reignites fresh scrutiny of the league heading into the new season remains to be seen, but Kaepernick's blunt language, no hedging, no diplomatic phrasing, guarantees the story will dominate NFL discourse just as teams finalise their 53-man rosters for 2026.