It was a lively and highly populated locker room following all of the events of the weekend. Many of the San Francisco 49ers seemed ready to talk about their quarterback and their opinion of his actions that have sparked a national news frenzy. The intensified coverage of the team will continue as long as Colin Kaepernick continues to sit during the National Anthem. The fact that the team travels to San Diego on Thursday, a city highly populated by military personnel, makes it even more interesting.
Several of the players expressed their feelings to the media and I’ve compiled some of the more interesting quotes:
Vance McDonald
We can sit around and come up here for 10 hours a day and talk nothing but football and that’s not going to build a ton of team as it is if you talk about a subject like trust, a subject like accountability. You can take all these different topics and if you just stick to football it wouldn’t be the same. You wouldn’t have that kind of connection with the guy next to you as would if you’re dealing with real life together. By now we’re talking about Kap and his stance, and it could be something completely different with another person that’s not as politically blinding as this was, and the fact that you bring it up and you talk through it, that builds relationships regardless.
At the end of the day, honestly it probably brought us closer together as a team, as crazy as that sounds, but that’s just the way we feel as a team, that it makes sense to us.
This was just an opportunity to feel him opening up about a specific subject. If you just showed up everyday and you did nothing but football and talked about nothing but football, you don’t know about anyone’s personal life or story? It’s almost kind of fake and superficial.
Daniel Kilgore
In the past 24-48 hours, Colin’s come under a lot of scrutiny. You try not to look at social media but it’s hard not to, especially when your brother, your teammate is the case. Seeing his point of view, it does help, it clears the air. It was a good meeting, it was a productive meeting. We are all under the same understanding, he has that right. And for me, personally, I see were Colin is coming from. Again, I don't agree with him not standing up for the National Anthem, but I do respect and acknowledge the fact that he has the right to decide what he wants to do.
Anthony Davis
The conversation was needed and I think the guys handled it well. We were open to each other’s opinions. It was impressive.
Antoine Bethea
We recognize what he did and what he took a stand for and as human beings and as citizens, we know he has that right to do so. Everybody is going to have their opinion on what he did, whether you agree or disagree you gotta take note that that’s why America is America. He has that right. We all addressed the team and and as a team we came to an understanding about what I said and from now on it’s about football.
He’s our teammate, we are all grown men here, and everybody is going to have different opinions. We might not agree with what he did or what he didn’t do, or the timing of it. Everybody might have a different opinion about it but at the end of the day he’s a 49er, he’s our brother we we’re going to go forward.
Torrey Smith
We all have conversations about things like this all the time so I think it’s a bigger thing publicly than it is in the locker room.
NaVorro Bowman
We understand that Colin has his rights and that we’re going to let him express those rights and it’s whoever’s prerogative it is on all the issue that are important in today’s society. He’s our teammate and we want to make sure that this team is stuck together and that no cancer or anything can get between us. That’s just the message that we as a team go by and I think that he’s done a great job with handling it and answering the questions that came up with him making that move. It’s not a distraction at all. We’re pushing forward trying to get ready for the season.