According to ABC’s Nightline, Colin Kaepernick is the modern day Jackie Robinson. The man who started the kneeling trend in the NFL is the same as the man who broke baseball’s color barrier. As video of Robinson played, Nightline anchor Dan Harris on Monday night hyped, “This current NFL kneeler movement may have kicked off with Colin Kaepernick, but when it comes to athletes using their platforms for change, he did not start the fire.”
Reporter Chris Connelly linked, “70 years ago, this was the face of change and of social activism in sports when Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.”
On Monday, CBS This Morning hailed Kaepernick, a man who called cops pigs and praised dictators, a “bridge builder.”
A partial transcript is below:
Nightline
9/26/17 (eastern) 9/25/17 in central
12:35DAN HARRIS: This current NFL kneeler movement may have kicked off with Colin Kaepernick, but when it comes to athletes using their platforms for change, he did not start the fire. [Video of Jackie Robinson.]
12:53HARRIS: : There are many sports fans in this country who look at the current debate over kneeling during the national anthem and say, “Please just keep politics out of sports.” However, there's a long history of athletes using their platform to fight for a cause.
...
CONNELLY: Yet, unsigned by any NFL team for the 2017 season, Kaepernick could not be found on the field where he said he wants to be, where NFL analysts and players have said he deserves to be.
CAM NEWTON: Do I think Kaepernick is better than some of these starting quarterbacks in this league? Absolutely. Should he be on a roster, in my opinion? Absolutely.
...
CONNELLY: 70 years ago, this was the face of change and of social activism in sports, when Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. As he told Dick Cavett on ABC in 1972.
JACKIE ROBINSON: The whole situation in breaking the barrier was done simply because we had a purpose in mind to go out and win. Then you move into a town like Brooklyn and it was just fantastic the way the fans responded and reacted. They were a great bunch of people.
CONNELLY: His heroism made him a revered American. A true north for athletes willing to take the lead on social issues. Often in the area of race. At the 1968 summer Olympics, this would be one of the galvanizing images of its time. U.S. athletes Tommy Smith and John Carlos raising gloved fists.
...
CONNELLY: Billie Jean king would be a leading light of the women’s movement, advocating for equal rights and opportunity as at the Miami open in 2016.
BILLIE JEAN KING: Everyone thinks women should be thrilled when we get crumbs. Okay? I want women to have the cake, the icing and the cherry on top.
