It was in August 2016 when Colin Kaepernick, then quarterback of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, refused to stand for the ritualistic pregame rendition of the national anthem in protest of police lethality against unarmed black men. A month later, Megan Rapinoe did the same before a National Women’s Soccer League game.
Kaepernick eventually was run out of football for his audacious protest and left to sue for wages he thought were taken from him as punishment.
Rapinoe continued to support what Kaepernick started, demonstratively and vocally, with the support of her employer, including U.S. Soccer, for whom she is starring on the pitch at the Women’s World Cup in France and being lauded off it for her unflinching criticism of the Trump administration.