Colin Kaepernick Calls Out NFL for Branding Him “Bad for Business” Despite Nike Campaign Adding Nearly $6 Billion in Value

Former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick who hasn't played in the NFL for nearly 10 years, aspires to return one day.

Colin Kaepernick Calls Out NFL for Branding Him “Bad for Business” Despite Nike Campaign Adding Nearly $6 Billion in Value

Colin Kaepernick (Image via CNN)

Colin Kaepernick will turn 39 on November 3, but the former Nevada Wolfpack and San Francisco 49ers quarterback still believes he can play in the NFL. Kaepernick last played in the league during the 2016 season.

Well, there’s a reason behind Kaepernick’s absence from pro football. If Kaepernick already wasn’t a household name, his September 1, 2016 exploits made him infamous across the nation.

Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem before a regular-season game, ending up on the front pages of every major news outlet. Kaepernick believes the NFL “blackballed” him because of this act. Kaepernick said on The New Yorker’s Radio Hour:

I think they only looked at it from the perspective of white fans.

Kaepernick and his former 49ers teammate Eric Reid exercised their constitutional right to take a knee during the national anthem and protest police brutality and systemic racism. Kaepernick went 1-10 that year. Once the season ended, he opted to part ways with the Niners and enter free agency.

That’s when his struggle began. No other team gave him a chance, and he remained without a club for the rest of the year. The Ravens nearly signed the former second-round draft pick until news surfaced that his girlfriend had compared owner Steve Bisciotti to a slave owner.

In 2017, Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL. He accused the NFL owners of collusion to keep him out of football. He added:

The part that I think is undercovered [by the media] is the massive support for the protests and how that continued to grow. And one of the narratives that the NFL continued to try to push out, because it benefited them, saying, ‘Oh, we’re not going to do this,’ because they didn’t want to align with supporting Black communities, was, ‘Oh, you’re bad for business. Like, you’re going to hurt the value of our teams. You’re going to hurt our ticket sales. You’re going to hurt all of these things.’

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Colin Kaepernick’s success with Nike Campaign

While the NFL owners feared employing Kaepernick would hurt their business, Kaepernick teamed up with Nike to prove them wrong. They launched the ‘Dream Crazy’ campaign, which took off instantly.

Colin Kaepernick Calls Out NFL for Branding Him “Bad for Business” Despite Nike Campaign Adding Nearly $6 Billion in Value
Colin Kaepernick (Image via NFL.com)

According to Forbes, Nike’s stock “jumped approximately $6 billion” during the campaign process. It generated more than $163 million in earned media value and lifted sales by 31%. Per Adweek, the Nike campaign won a Grand Prix in Creative Effectiveness at Cannes Lions in 2021.

Even though Kaepernick wasn’t actively playing at the time, his jersey sales had skyrocketed in various outlets across the country. In 2019, Nike released Kaepernick’s signature Air Force 1 ’07 x Colin Kaepernick (Jordans). Per Andscape, Nike created a tagline mirroring Kaepernick’s professional life: “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.” 

Over the years, Kaepernick has tried to return to the NFL in some shape or form. After Aaron Rodgers tore his ACL in 2023, Kaepernick wrote a letter to the New York Jets stating that he would wear the club’s badge with honor. But never received a reply. He resurfaced during the 2024 Paris Olympics and once again expressed his desire to help a team in need.

He was briefly linked with the Los Angeles Chargers after his former coach, Jim Harbaugh, became the head coach of the AFC club. But nothing happened. Kaepernick hasn’t officially retired and hopes to put on an NFL jersey someday.

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