Nearly ten years ago San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick made headlines when he kneeled for the national anthem. The decision to disrespect the flag was met with praise from the left and its corporate media allies.
“Colin Kaepernick absolutely has a constitutional right to express his opinion on the politics of diversity in America,” one headline in the San Francisco Chronicle read.
The New York Times’ Daniel Victor wrote a piece entitled: “Obama Says Colin Kaepernick Is ‘Exercising His Constitutional Right.'”
The article details how then president-Obama framed Kaepernick’s kneeling as a constitutional right and that “the president said there was a long history of sports figures making political statements.”
An op-ed by Eric Reid, who also took a knee with Kaepernick, was published in The New York Times and declared that kneeling for the flag was part of the First Amendment.
Peaceful protest is a First Amendment right — but so is freedom of religion. Which is why it’s so interesting to see the same outlets that cheered the First Amendment’s guarantee of the right to free speech and protest condemn a handful of San Francisco Giants players’ exercise of their First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
During a Friday Pride Night game, several San Francisco Giants players wrote Bible verses on their hats. One player later explained there was “no hate at all. It’s just what I stand for, and what I stand on: I believe in God.” The same player noted that the rainbow is a symbol of God’s covenant and promise.
“I’m thankful we live in a country where, you know, we have the freedom to believe what we want, and express what we want,” he added.
But apparently that freedom — the freedom enshrined in the same amendment that justified Kaepernick’s disrespect — is only reserved for people who agree with left-wing dogma, so says the left and the propaganda press.
The San Francisco Chronicle (you know, the same outlet who 10 years ago framed Kaepernick’s disrespect toward the flag as a “constitutional right” to free speech) published an article by Ann Killion: “Giants pitchers didn’t just deface Pride uniforms. They alienated their fans and city.”
“Yet some of the snowflakes on the Giants, the pitching staff specifically, decided to say a giant F-you to a good chunk of their fan base. On a night that was supposed to be about inclusion, they hijacked the event for their own purposes. In the name of Christianity, they took a decidedly un-Christian stance of exclusion and judgment,” Killion wrote, adding that the pitchers are “homophobic.”
The Athletic’s Grant Brisbee wrote: “Giants pitchers’ Bible verses on Pride Night caps show how they’ve missed the point.”
Note that The Athletic is a subsidiary of The New York Times — the same outlet that celebrated Kaepernick’s First Amendment right to protest in mulitple pieces.
“The verse details God’s covenant with humanity after the great flood, as Noah is told that the rainbow will be a symbol of the covenant. By choosing this verse as a response to the rainbow colors of the pride hat, the message appeared to be: Don’t forget what the rainbow is really about,” Brisbee wrote, adding, “this was another tone-deaf response to what should have been a moment for community unity. They made the night about ‘us versus them.’ That’s the only thing they could see.”
Brisbee then went onto claim that without the pitchers supporting Pride Night, “LGBTQIA+ individuals are much more likely to be told that they are without value” and also attempted to blame the pitchers for “LGBTQIA+” persons committing self harm or being assaulted.
It’s hard to ignore how the left went from celebrating the First Amendment to using it as a cudgel against a handful of pitchers who simply expressed their sincerely held religious beliefs. But this really isn’t a contradiction for the left once you understand what was happening all along.
The left didn’t champion Kaepernick because they were deeply committed to the First Amendment’s right to freedom of expression. They championed him because they agreed with his message. Kaepernick’s protest reinforced a narrative about America that the left had already believed, which is that America is fundamentally racist and our institutions are fundamentally unjust. The First Amendment defense was merely used because it helped shield Kaepernick’s wildly unpopular and disrespectful protest from criticism. Americans were told not to focus on the fact that Kaepernick kneeling for the anthem was disrespectful but rather that it was his “right” to do so, and therefore actually inherently American.
But now that athletes are expressing views that the left-wing dogma doesn’t like, the same defense of the First Amendment has disappeared.
The Giants’ pitchers didn’t stop anyone from participating in Pride Night. They didn’t harm anyone. They didn’t prevent gay people from watching baseball. They simply (and subtly) expressed their sincerely held religious beliefs.
And yet the same media outlets that spent years defending athletic activism and the First Amendment were nowhere to be found. And suddenly the same crowd that seemingly loved athletic activism hates athletic activism.
Why?
Because they never actually loved athletic activism — just athletes that agreed with them and their ideology.
