How might Russell Wilson’s protest have been different?

One knelt while the other locked arms. One has been voted the league’s most disliked player, the other praised for fighting through a pair of leg injuries that would have knocked most quarterbacks to the pine.

The worlds of 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick and Seahawks signal-caller Russell Wilson have been intertwined and entangled since each came to prominence for rival teams in 2012. And while they are among the relative few black quarterbacks in the NFL, the differences between the two are stark, and the divisiveness each creates in the public eye may have an even wider gap. That’s particularly true when it comes to each players’ stance on protesting the national anthem.

Much like their public personas, Kaepernick took the bolder route – sitting (and later kneeling) while the rest of the NFL stood to honor America, while Wilson joined his teammates weeks later in a more neutral, love-oriented demonstration of unity by linking arms with one another.

Pardon me while I make a generalization on an extremely complex problem, if only for this hypothetical. Using the most simplistic explanation I could find, the Black Lives Matter movement is based on the principle of emphasizing the value in the lives of black and other marginalized communities that are being victimized by unjust killings or ignored. That unarmed people of color should not be killed by the people who are charged with protecting them. It’s, frankly, a notion that most reasonable people agree on. However, it’s the anger associated with the impassioned movement that has pushed some people away. The same could be said about the response to Kaepernick.

The national reaction has been split in the ways one might expect, often (again, sorry for the extreme generalization) along political party lines. On one side, Kaepernick’s move has been called an unpatriotic gesture by a spoiled millionaire who wore insensitive socks; on the other, Black Lives Matter supporters have generally swayed between admiration or scrutinizing Kaepernick’s blackness to deliver the message because of his mixed-race heritage. Meanwhile, the side who opposes, and has threatened, Kaepernick is generally the one that praises Wilson. Wilson is a God-fearing leader who has proved countless doubters wrong on his way to success while giving back to his community. However, from a Black Lives Matter standpoint, Wilson and the Seahawks’ unified stance didn’t say enough, while Wilson also heard the “not black enough” storyline in the past.

Kaepernick recently graced the cover of Time magazine, and based on the response and public debate that has dominated headlines since the media first noticed Kaepernick sitting during the Star Spangled Banner more than a month ago, it appears the QB’s concerns have been heard. But with the massive contrarian response to both the movement and Kaepernick himself, it’s worth wondering if the core of the message was lost in the scramble, perhaps because of the voice it came from.

So here’s the thought experiment: What if Kaepernick and Wilson had flipped roles? What if Wilson, who mentions God and team in every post-game press conference, who visits hospitals and meets with veterans more in a month than most do in a lifetime, was the one who was holding the BLM banner and took the initial, unexpected stance to put his knee in the turf and say, “Enough is enough.” If his calm, admired face had been the one behind the NFL’s protest? Would it have changed the narrative or the way we look at the demonstrations? Could his earnest image at the center of an angry, complex problem alter the conversation in ways others couldn’t? Or is one black knee the same as all the others?

The role swap isn’t necessarily as far-fetched as it may seem.

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Whether it’s because of race, NFC West rivalry, age, or simply the position they play, Wilson and Kaepernick have been compared since both emerged onto the national scene. Kaepernick, 28, was drafted in the second round of the 2011 draft; Wilson, 27, was a third rounder in 2012. In Jan of 2014, the major subplot of the NFC title game was Kaepernick vs. Wilson. This story came out, comparing the Instagram accounts of the pair. Kaepernick parties and shows off his tattoos and shoe collection; Wilson wrestles with his dog and poses with sick children and the military. They shared the cover of Sports Illustrated the next year.

Besides the similar paths on the field, both share part of their development with the state of Wisconsin, which may have been a lynchpin in Kaepernick’s initial stance.

Kaepernick was born in Milwaukee but left with his adopted parents by the age of 4. He still has ties to the city and started his national anthem protest on Aug. 14, one day after the Milwaukee riots that stemmed from the officer-involved shooting of Sylville Smith, an armed black man who was running from police. Nobody noticed Kaepernick sitting during the pregame ritual for two weeks, but that changed with the third preseason game. That’s when he told reporters, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” By the fourth preseason game, he’d shifted his protest to a knee after speaking with people like former Green Beret and Seahawk Nate Boyer, who reportedly told Kaepernick that members of the military were offended by his sitting.

Wilson spent one season at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after four years at NC State and even gave the Badgers’ commencement address over the summer. The morning after the unrest in Milwaukee, Wilson tweeted his Bible Verse of the Day and, that night, “Control what you can control.” Wilson has never taken a public stance on Black Lives Matter but said following the first game when the Seahawks linked arms: “Obviously, this country, we’ve gone through so much. The African-American community, we’ve gone through a lot. For history, and all of the things that have gone on. Not every police officer is a bad police officer, and not every African American is a bad person, and vice versa. … Our team, our goal was to challenge other people to build that bridge with us, not separate but with us. We want this city to come together and be able to do that.”

Many of the world’s most famous athletes have opted against picking sides in social issues, Michael Jordan in his playing days being the most famous example. So perhaps it’s not fair to ask Wilson to step so far out of his comfort zone in what is almost always ‘the high road’ that he learned from his late father. But that wouldn’t be fair to Wilson the activist, either. Though Wilson has not been one to push major social change, that doesn’t mean he shies away from controversial stances he believes in. As odd as it might sound, his most scandalous and impassioned public stances have come from him being unapologetic about his faith and his disclosure of being abstinent with his pop star then-girlfriend, now wife, Ciara.

It’s also not fair to say Wilson wouldn’t be vocal about racial disparity. He found earlier this year about a distant relative who was born a slave and has had to answer questions about his own mixed race in the past. After the media reported rumors that his teammates didn’t think he was black enough, Wilson responded: “About me not being black enough, I don’t even know what that means … I believe I’m an educated young male that’s not perfect but tries to do things right. I try to lead by example and help others. That’s all I focus on, and that’s all I know.”

What we do know about Wilson is that he’s comfortable in uncomfortable situations. Have you ever seen him on Facebook Live at Seattle Children’s Hospital? He is so natural. He turns a tense or difficult situation into a beautiful, touching moment. He’s a born politician, like a Barack Obama of the gridiron. There is a case to be made, though, that Wilson as ‘the villain’ would have been much, much worse. People of all races have named their kids, their dogs after Russell. A non-neutral stance like this would have let them down. Wilson was not meant to be an alienator, he’s meant to be a uniter after the storm.

To that end, when likable Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane followed Kaepernick’s example – months removed from signing a $23 million deal in the offseason – Lane was generally criticized more than praised for his protest. And when beloved star Kevin Durant surprised the NBA community by jumping from the Thunder to the juggernaut Warriors, the people of Oklahoma City burned him from their memory; the sports community condemned him for “taking the easy way out.” When it comes to sports and politics, likeability be damned.

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The supposed “problem” with Kaepernick as the NFL’s figurehead for the movement is multi-fold, and can be made partially clearer through a comment I overheard in the press box following the Seahawks win over the 49ers on Sept. 25, when a list of Kaepernick’s quotes was distributed to the media: “Getting quotes from the backup QB? What does that say about the NFL?”

It’s not that Kaepernick is a bad guy or that he’s necessarily ill-suited to be a face of the BLM movement. Part of the problem is that he’s an easy target for ridicule. Unlike Muhammad Ali or Jackie Robinson, who were at the top of the mountain in their respective sports when they took social stances, Kaepernick is not. After standing on the sidelines in Seattle behind 49ers starter Blaine Gabbert, Kaepernick took his time getting ready at his locker and turned to an awaiting gaggle of reporters in the visiting locker room. There he answered questions for just less than seven minutes, speaking about goals for his protest and how it was “amazing” that youth were getting involved in the protests, before a team official put an end to the questions. I found him to be personable and likable. But he’s still the overpaid backup on a bad team.

Kaepernick is also the quarterback who kisses his biceps after touchdowns and made headlines in April of 2014 for his alleged involvement in a sexual assault, though he was not charged with any crime. Combine all those factors and Kaepernick’s actions can be seen as childish or villainous, making the symbolic gesture feel meaningless. However, Kaepernick also pledged to donate $1 million to charity and his shown a willingness to compromise, transitioning his protest from sitting to taking a knee.

Argument and debate are often considered positives when it comes to solving an issue but, as seen with the current political landscape – which even has Kaepernick embarrassed – divisiveness can lead to radical options that leave the moderate majority under-satisfied. Kaepernick would qualify as the latter solely because of his perceived image, not his actual stance. His words have been seen as threatening, and Kaepernick says he’s received death threats because of them. He said after the Seattle game that anyone experiencing backlash from the protests, like a teacher at Garfield High School who had his tires slashed, needs to be prepared when making those kinds of bold statements. “I think everybody knows what can happen going into this,” he said. “I think that shows the strength and courage of the people that are willing to take a stand. I think it also shows the racism, the bigotry, the hatred that still exists in this country when you have people trying to make these communities better, and make a better life for people, and they’re getting their tires slashed.”

Would Wilson be willing to take that chance? Only he knows. Either way, it might be that Kaepernick was the man for the starting job after all.

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