The San Francisco 49ers are not playing until Monday night, but Sunday has been plenty busy. During ESPN’s pre-game show, former quarterback Trent Dilfer offered up his take on Colin Kaepernick’s protest. He called it irresponsible, and said that as a backup quarterback, his job is to be quiet and sit in the shadows while helping the starter prepare.
Notably, Dilfer said the protest was tearing apart the fabric of 49ers. However, outside linebacker Eli Harold took serious exception with Dilfer’s comments.
Trent Dilfer you are an idiot. You really just pissed me off.
— Mad Max (@EliHarold_) September 11, 2016
I personally think Dilfer is off base, but I would be curious how the 49ers locker room views this across various demographics. The two most notable demos would be black vs. white and young vs. older veterans.
Daniel Kilgore said initially he was offended, but the players’ only meeting brought clarity to him as to why Kaepernick is doing what he’s doing. Some of the veterans have deflected the topic to focus on football issues. But we don’t know what everybody on the team thinks about it. And we probably will never know for certain. There probably are mixed opinions on the team, but has it “torn at the fabric of the team?” We don’t know for certain, but some players are taking exception to Dilfer’s opinion.
Monday Night Football is on ESPN, which means they get the pre-game show. Dilfer is one of their analysts, and I am certain we will hear more on this from him Monday evening.