Thursday 26 October 2017 16:58, UK
Colin Kaepernick’s stance against perceived police brutality against black people in America is “bigger than the game”, according to Ian Wright.
Kaepernick began sitting and then kneeling pre-game during the national anthem in 2016. Players and officials across the NFL have shown solidarity with his message, either replicating the gesture or linking arms ahead of matches this season.
The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback has been criticised in some corners for disrespecting the flag but Wright says people who take that view are completely missing the point.
"The way he is. I would love to meet him one day just to shake his hand," Wright said on The Debate while discussing Sky Sports' My Icon series.
"What he has done is he has put his career on the line for something that is bigger than him, bigger than the game, bigger than everything.
"I think with Kaepernick, what we have to understand, is even though he is doing it for reasons including police brutality, standing up for something, it is still being turned around into something like he is disrespecting the anthem or the flag.
"They are trying to take it away from what he is actually doing it for.
"That is what happens. When you come out as a black person to try and make a statement it always flips on its head.
"That is why it is so hard for people to come out and say something because it turns out like they are trying to play the race card or they've got a chip on their shoulder.
"Once we get past it, we'll be able to talk about it like we are doing now.
"I don't think I would have been brave enough to take the stance Kaepernick had taken when I was playing.
"When guys like him and girls like Eni Aluko take that stand, it does galvanise you and it does make you feel I want to say or do something. I feel you I have to get behind these people.
"He is doing something where in years to come they will see him take that knee with that big afro and the way he is, taking the knee for the right reasons not to disrespect the flag - it was the same as the guys who were putting the fist up in the Olympics [Tommie Smith and John Carlos at Mexico City 1968]."
Fellow studio guest Darren Bent praised Kaepernick for bringing the issue of racial injustice to the fore and says it is unfair the quarterback has not been signed to a team this season.
"It's good that Kaepernick and Eni Aluko [whose complaint of racial discrimination against former England boss was recently upheld] have come out and said these kind of things because if these people don't speak, things don't get better.
"If it gets hushed up and swept under the carpet people think it is acceptable to just carry on doing it. But they have come forward Kaepernick has obviously taken a big stand and he's suffering for it now because he is not playing.
"Good on them [for speaking out]. I think I would be the same. If I'm in the dressing room and I see it going on I think I would have to say something because ultimately if they are a black person I am a black person and if it is the same comments it is affecting me as well.
"So many people have backed him and said what he is doing is right but yet he can't get a club which is wrong."
