Remember when Colin Kaepernick took a seat during the National Anthem? Remember when there was speculation that it would divide a locker room? Or, remember the former NFLer’s weighing in following speculation that the locker room was divided, Kaepernick was destroying the team, etc?
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jeremy Kerley says that’s not the case. He was a guest on Damon Amendolara’s DA show and of course the Kaepernick question came up.
Kerley was asked if it created pressure, or another hurdle for the team. He said that it did not, but it was “almost annoying” dealing with the media asking about what the team viewed as not being a big deal for the team on the field.
Here’s what Kerley had to say specifically about the protest:
I think for me personally, it was just almost annoying. It was just talked about too much and to the point where everybody thought it was a problem for us. It was never a problem in the locker room. It’s not something that we had to sit down and have a team meeting about. It wasn’t something that Colin that, you know, was running around raving about in the locker room. Guys weren’t back and forth arguing. Certain guys gave their opinion, but it was a real grown-up, so to say, opinion. We sat down and if you had an opinion about what Colin—you talk to him, . But it wasn’t something that was a big discussion in our locker room. A lot of guys respected what Colin was doing, and as a teammate, I definitely respected him, and if he needed me in any way, I backed him up. That’s what a teammate does.
Amendolara followed up stating it may have been a “bigger storm outside the locker room” which Kerley agreed with.
A lot of the Colin Kaepernick/locker room status has died down, at least compared to when the kneels began around seven months ago. While this caused widespread outrage across the country, it seems everything has started to get contained. All the speculation was the kneel-down protest would drive him out of San Francisco and the locker room was sick of dealing with it.
Turns out, everything might just be fine. The locker room just grew sick of the media asking them about it.