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Pitts: Nike backs a man and justice in a rare act of corporate valor

By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald

Colin Kaepernick is staring at you.

It’s a black-and-white image, a portrait taken from a distance that feels painfully close, even intimate. Kaepernick, the reviled and revered NFL quarterback who has been unemployed and unemployable since he sparked a movement of athletes and others kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality against African-Americans, watches you with clear eyes and a serious mien.

The text running across his face reads as follows: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

Given that Kaepernick has sacrificed a chunk of his physical prime, if not his entire career, on an altar of principle, the ad is undeniably powerful.