Surprise! Mike Ditka Is Still Pretty Pissed At Colin Kaepernick
By Stephen Gossett in News on Dec 1, 2016 7:01PM
Getty Images / Mike Ditka / Photo: Tim Boyle
Ah, Mike Ditka. We can always count on The Coach to angrily steamroll through nuance. The legendary former Bear—and legendarily ill-tempered and ill-mannered—is (shocker) still not all that taken with San Francisco 49ers Colin Kaepernick and his national anthem protest.
If, like us, you’re trying to block out all things Bears because they’re just too damn embarrassing right now, you might not be aware, but the Bears host the 49ers on Sunday. And the visiting QB will again kneel for the national anthem—a protest he’s conducted in some form since the preseason. He’ll be protesting police brutality in a city where the number of fatal police shootings has reached double digits this year. It should be noted, also, that Kaepernick has put his money where his symbolic protest is: he donated $1 million to the Black Youth Project 100, including the Chicago chapter.
But Ditka remains pretty perturbed. He said this week, according to the Sun-Times:
‘‘I’m old-fashioned. I believe if you don’t respect the flag and you don’t respect the country, then you’ve got an option. You’re not going to change it, so leave. You have a chance to leave. It’s not too complicated. If you think it’s better somewhere else, you’re really nuts.”
“I just don’t have a lot of empathy for somebody who has no respect for this country,” he added.
Perhaps some leniency is due, though. After all, that’s not quite as bad as when Ditka urged Kaepernick to “get the hell out”of the country if he doesn’t like it here. Small steps.
Kaepernick vocalized his praise for BYP100 earlier this week and said he’s pursuing giving more donations to other Chicago groups. He said of the activist organization:
“They’re on the ground level doing work in those communities to try to create a better environment and to try to create change. To really empower the youth and give them opportunities to succeed and not be targeted.”
At a time when even the president-elect puts the flag above the First Amendment, we say get on board with the activists, Mike.