Gary Sheffield, Jr
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Tom Brady and Tampa Bay Buccaneers punched their ticket to the Super Bowl with a 31-26 win over the Packers in the NFC Championship. The win led to G.O.A.T. talk, when researcher Ahmed Ali tweeted an interesting statement:
Funny how people can separate Tom Brady’s politics from his game, but struggle to do the same when it comes to Kaepernick.
— Ahmed Ali (@MrAhmednurAli) January 25, 2021
Ali wanted to shed light on the fact that Tom Brady doesn’t seem to be affected by cancel culture the same way Kaepernick has been. And, in a way, he’s right.
Colin Kaepernick and his political stance couldn’t be overlooked for two reasons:
- He hasn’t been decent at football since 2015.
- His political leaning is the opposite of his audience.
Is this really a question that Ahmed Ali can’t solve on his own? The average fan of football is a hardworking, middle-class, blue collar conservative. Kaepernick should’ve known this before he decided to turn off his audience while playing awful football.
So, what really happened to Colin Kaepernick?
Was he blacklisted from the NFL? Are the NFL owners racist? Neither are true, yet it’s all we read and listen to on national airwaves. It’s lazy and shows that Kaepernick and our media have no self-awareness.
Tom Brady is allowed to support President Donald Trump because the majority of his audience agrees with him. Plus, a Super Bowl win thrusts him in a conversation to be the greatest football player ever.
As much as ESPN would like to ignore the facts, being irreplaceable in your field of work helps negate political differences.
So Kaepernick is trending because Tom Brady (a skilled quarterback) hasn’t been canceled due to his friendship with Donald Trump. Yep, makes sense. #LiberalismIsADisease
— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) January 25, 2021
Months before his death, Muhammad Ali issued a statement against Trump’s proposed Muslim ban. Ali was clearly on the opposite side of the fence from plenty of boxing fans, yet his legacy remained intact. Literally no one mentions the fact that Muhammad Ali stood against racism for the majority of his career because he was the perfect messenger.
Football fans can’t stand Colin Kaepernick’s attempt to be the next Rosa Parks because he had nothing to lose by doing what he did. If the former 49ers quarterback decided to “shut up and play play football” the way Fox’s Laura Ingraham asked, he would be holding a clipboard for pennies on the dollar for god knows who.
His career was shot, and ever since his decided to be a martyr, he’s began cashing checks he would’ve never seen otherwise. Tom Brady can do what he wants because he’s earned that right, Ahmed. If you don’t like it, tell Colin Kaepernick to ditch Instagram and sign as a backup.
I wouldn’t expect Ahmed to get this but I will point this out.
Other than the fact Tom and Donald know each other…and I think I saw a red hat in his locker once…I know very little about what Tom’s politics are. His identity is largely because of his football career.
Meanwhile Kaepernick couldn’t stop talking constantly about what his politics are…and his identity is being a Nike model for China.
Kap BROUGHT his politics onto the field.
Indeed, Brady is the poster child for how to succeed in America. Put your family first, your job a VERY close second,, and don’t expose your flank by running your mouth on social media and/or in person. The old saying “Opinions are like assholes” fits very well with the Kaepernick situation.
Absolutely, Ray and guys…I’ve never heard Brady talk politics. He seems to be able to separate, and his focus is football and family. Ahmed Ali clearly has an agenda, and he’s entitled to his opinion, but the facts are something different.
Well this is simple. Colin hates America and Donald Trump loves America. Very simple answer.
The other maga (see what I did there) difference is that Colin Kaepernick brought his politics to the field. Whether I agree or disagree with athletes politics, I do not think politics belong on the field, court, ballpark, course, etc. Sports are supposed to be a way to check out for a couple hours from day to day life. Unfortunately, I don’t think that will really ever be the case again.
Exactly – this is the biggest distinction to me. There’s some ambiguity around TB’s politics. And TB has never used the field, sideline or locker room as his political soap box. CK used his athletic fame and exposure to protest. Agree or disagree with the substance of his protest, you have to recognize that he took a risk of being cancelled. Brady hasn’t done that.
Bingo. If Tom Brady used the national anthem as a platform to agitate for his political leanings, it would receive as much backlash as Kaepernick received.
The difference between the two is Brady is guarded about his politics while Kaepernick shoves his politics down your throat.
Brady is a ‘real’ person with real friends and a loving family. he represents the American dream on almost any level.
Kap the Dick also had the American dream right in his hands, but like a drug addict, he wanted attention rather than the American dream.
he already won the genetic lottery with his physical gifts.
then he won a family lottery by being adopted and raised in a middle class family.
then he made $millions for basically one good year in the NFL.
can’t wait for the HBO Colin Kap documentary in 20 years.
I think Jemele Hill is working on an actual Kap doc. It’s actually happening.
Kaepernick’s white democrat defenders will leave him when they discover how much he hates Biden, too. lol
The flaws in Ahmed Ali’s logic are the following:
1. Brady never thrust his politics into people’s faces.
2. Brady has had a far better career than anyone that has ever played QB. If Mahomes all the sudden comes out super woke, he won’t get cut because he’s, like Gary said, irreplaceable on the field. Talent and tolerance correlate. The more talented you are, the more people will tolerate you.
Okaaayyyy, here. Watch it with Mahomes talk 😉
That being said, if Mahomes became vocally woke, KC would have a HUGE problem. Kansas and Missouri fans would NOT support a Kapernick. Ever. We’d rather lose.
That would be a shame and we’d hate to see Mahomes not playing for the Chiefs, but young Shef’s point is a great one. The NFL like every honest industry is a meritocracy, so Patrick will always have a job as long as he plays well. The problem for Kaep, and the dirty secret his fanboys/girls don’t want to admit is that he was average at best the last 3 years of his career. No one wants a backup QB with a big mouth and a bad attitude.
All that being said, we both know Patrick was raised better than to allow his politics to interfere with his career. Same goes for Brady.
I’m not saying Mahomes should or will. I’m just making the hypothetical to prove a point. I really think Kaep made a business decision to go woke, because he had basically been figured out/exposed (play cover 4 and spy a linebacker or two). Sadly that decision has paid off for him as he makes more money playing the aggrieved martyr than he does being Gabbert’s back-up.
The hits just keep on comin! You’re on fire, Gary 👍🏼
Brady’s “politics” that sports media gets so mad about are back in 2015 when Trump first announced he was running for president Brady was doing a media scrum in front of his locker and there was a MAGA hat in it and he said it’d be cool if he was president since Brady knew him. Since then Brady’s gone out of his way to make any political statement of any kind. Seems slightly different than Kaepernick’s
kapernick is a traitrous cop hating fucking POS he was raised by a loving white family in an at least middle class American neighborhood he grew up and became a multimillionaire playing a game this clown should go live in cuba or venezuela for awhile.
He’d love that, according to him. Yet he still stays in the US at his, presumably, personal estate. Go figure!
Agreed. Kaepernick is a traiterous POS. These athletes are so delusional. They are promoting communism but have no idea what communism is really like.
That’s why
Colins’ political beliefs, like his performance on the field, are trash. He was benched for Blaine Gabbert. His desire to defund the police is not supported by the vast majority most of Americans- even Democrats.
One makes all of his teams better and pull everybody up. Kap brings everybody down and is self centered despite claiming he’s fighting for a cause. And he’s not as good a QB. That’s all
Ali wants to posit the ‘white privilege’ libsplanation.
However, as so aptly said above by Ray Bergman…
“Colin hates America and Donald Trump loves America. Very simple answer.”
It’s okay to love your country!
Gary, I really enjoy your writing. You write well and don’t seem to be affected by pc culture. Keep up the good work.
I don’t notice Brady ever being political or making a statement. He had a hat in his locker? Ok….
I agree with the above reasons, and add one more:
No one likes a whiny-assed person, let alone a whiny-ass RICH person living the dream.
Trump never had a “muslim” ban. His administration limited immigration/travel from 7 nations, one was North Korea that doesn’t allow religion, that would not follow America’s laws related to documentation required for travel into the country.
The MOST populous “muslim” countries, Indonesia, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, weren’t even included as those nations provided the necessary information.
The Facts Matter!
This is quite simple. Kaep decided to turn himself into a lightning rod when he started to suck at his job. Sports owners don’t like lightning rods. They tolerate them when they can produce on the field of play. Brady doesn’t do that however even if he did, regardless of what his worldview is or would be, he is invaluable to the organizations he’s played for. No one would cut ties with him for that reason.
Pretty sure Kap’s new girlfriend at the time, who’s left of AOC, had something to do with him going off the rails. Racial hucksters come in all shapes and sizes.
If you had a company manager who kept costs down and productivity up, you wouldn’t care what their politics were, as long as it didn’t interfere with your business. However, if your manager breaks the budget and you lose profits, they are gone, and it wouldn’t be because he decided to start wearing a dress.
Him and Rex Chapman should hook up
I’m interested to hear what Drew Brees has to say about mixing sports/politics?
Drew Brees folded like a little coward bitch instead of standing up to the communists and terrorists polluting sports.
The fake protesting communist drama queen bitch coward Krappernick is a washed up has been shitpile cashing big slave labor king Nikes checks for being a racist divisive ass wipe.
Brady just keeps on being a football god and not pissing anyone off with asinine communist stances,
His level of immaturity was on display even before the protests started: The wearing of a Dolphins hat as the starting QB of the 49ers, his disrespectful tweet/IG post about #7tormscoming and posting a picture of the flood in Houston, and of course, him breaking “bro code” and dating his teammates ex (Nessa was dating Aldon Smith before she and Kap hooked up) which led to a skirmish in practice between the two before Aldon was released. THEN the 2015 season started and well, we all know what happened (KNBR deleted the link, but the internet is forever): http://web.archive.org/web/20170922021856/http://www.knbr.com/2015/11/03/how-colin-kaepernick-lost-his-job/
When he was on top of the world in 2012-2013, you didn’t hear a damn thing from him in regards to any social injustices, just him posting pics of his body, his cars, his shoes, and his pet tortoise Sammy (seriously, he even had a Twitter account for ol’ Sammy!). After he lost his job, his IG became full of militant/revolutionary posts, playing the “oppressed” card as if he wasn’t running around telling everybody he’s proudly biracial when he was the toast of the league. Case in point, he started this “protesting” so he wouldn’t be infamously known as the guy who sucked so bad that he lost his gig to BLAINE. GABBERT.
very detailed and well said. Kap is and always has been a narcissist like so many others who post all day on social media. Kap has zero integrity
Any half knowledgeable football fan can see Kaep was a horrible QB in 2014. There is no question. The problem is, most of his “followers” don’t care about football and objective standards, they care about tearing down America. Meaning Kaep and his apologists can point to perceived racism and oppression as the reason he no longer plays in the league.
100% correct The fake protesting communist coward drama queen bitch Krappernick and slave labor kings Nike have followed their script of hate and division to the letter
Oh my gosh, that was so ugly. I quit watching after the 3 and 8 against Seattle when it looked like he intentionally threw the ball away when he really wasn’t trying to do that.
Did he have the yips like golfers and infielders get at times? It looks like it was a combination of terrible preparation and the yips.
Kaep also had a great chance at a comeback when he was offered a “prove-it” contract by Elway and the Broncos. He had all sorts of stipulations like wanting to be the guaranteed starter and minimum money. It was a good roster in a great organization. He turned it down flat.
I’ve often thought Max Kellerman’s shots at Brady had at least something to do with his friendship with Trump.
Ali is a moron. The difference, you nincompoop? Marxist politics DEFINE Krapernick. Most people don’t even KNOW Brady’s political leaning. There, is that simple enough for you, dummy?
The NFL is dead in our house because of Krapernick and friends kneeling during the National Anthem and promotion of the Marist organization BLM. I don’t recall Brady bringing these kind of anti-American antics to his place of work. Not the platform!
I predict Brady will run for political office when his football career is over.
Playing the victim makes one a lot of money. That’s the far left way. Older folks in this country would feel shameful, never depend on handouts. Today, these scum balls are proud to play the victim.
Good article!
“1. He hasn’t been decent at football since 2015.
2. His political leaning is the opposite of his audience.”
1. is absolutely correct but 2. is way way off. There are plenty of sports figures with left-leaning political views that are supported by their conservative fans. The difference is simple: 1. Perform and 2. Keep it in your off-the-field like.
I didn’t like Kellen Mond’s stance on statues on the A&M campus but he performed this year and he didn’t bring it on the field. It’s not rocket science.