Dori: Nike needs to learn who the real heroes are
Sep 7, 2018, 6:45 AM
A large billboard stands on top of a Nike store showing former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick at Union Square, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Nike’s new advertising campaign has a lot of veterans and active military pretty upset. It has a picture of Colin Kaepernick with the words, “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.”
If you’re someone who has lost a loved one serving our country and you see this ad, how does that make you feel? Colin Kaepernick hasn’t sacrificed a thing. Now, I told you the first time he started sitting for the anthem that he was free to do so. The thing I didn’t like about Kaepernick was when he wore the socks with the pigs in police hats at practice. I would have suspended him for disrespecting law enforcement on the job. But it’s a free country, and — thanks to our service members who fought for them — these guys have the right to sit for the anthem.
Let’s get real about Kaepernick — he wasn’t that good of a quarterback. Unlike Russell Wilson, he couldn’t sustain his greatness. He had a declining skill set, he was benched by the 49ers, he was their backup quarterback, and the league caught up to the guy. He was facing the humiliation of being someone who just shone very brightly for a very short time.
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Now, I don’t know if he was this calculating, but when he started sitting for the anthem, all of a sudden, this whole commercial opportunity opened up for him. He could make millions as an NFL quarterback, or he could make millions as a Nike spokesperson.
I was in San Diego this past weekend, and we visited the Mount Soledad National Memorial in La Jolla. There are all of these plaques for men and women who have served and died, and it struck me how there are so many people who have sacrificed everything. Colin Kaepernick may have given up an NFL contract to do this, but all he gave up was money. There are men and women who have lost limbs, sacrificed body parts for their country. In many cases, they have sacrificed their very lives. He has sacrificed nothing.
For Nike and Colin Kaepernick to have the audacity to put his photo up with the phrase “sacrificing everything” because he sat for the anthem and doesn’t have the skills to get a gig — that there is a corporation and an individual who have no sense of perspective. What a slap in the face this is to men and women who have sacrificed a whole lot more than Colin Kaepernick has.
Our real heroes are the men and women who serve our country.
