Colin Kaepernick had a surprisingly solid game against the Cardinals on Sunday afternoon. He threw for 210 yards and a touchdown, ran for 55 yards and another touchdown, and nearly helped San Francisco upset Arizona on the road. So after the game, reporters should have been gathered around him to ask about his performance, right?
Yeah, no. Kaepernick made headlines last week after he revealed that he chose not to vote in the presidential election. ESPN First Take analyst Stephen A. Smith sounded off on him for doing it, but Kaepernick said that he decided not to vote because he has been "very disconnected from the systematic oppression as a whole." So on Sunday, all anyone wanted to talk to him about was the election, and he once again explained why he made the decision not to vote this year by saying that he felt it would have been "hypocritical" of him to hit the voting booth.
"You know, I think it would be hypocritical of me to vote," he said on Sunday. "I said from the beginning I was against oppression, I was against the system of oppression. I’m not going to show support for that system. And to me, the oppressor isn’t going to allow you to vote your way out of your oppression."
Kaepernick also continued by saying that he doesn’t plan on fighting systematic oppression any differently now that Donald Trump has been elected president. "I think everybody should feel urgency," he said, "to make sure we’re doing the right thing, building, you know, things the right way to be able to protect ourselves from the things that may come from this."
It doesn’t seem like Kaepernick has a whole lot more to say about his voting decision, but that’s probably not going to stop reporters from continuing to poke and prod him about it. With the 49ers sitting at 1-8 and their season more or less over, Kaepernick is really the only reason to pay attention to the team at this point.
