Colin Kaepernick doubled down on his comparison of the NFL to the slave trade during a podcast interview with former ESPN commentator Ryan Clark this week.
“When did you truly start to have the realization that [the combine] reminds [you] of the slave trade?” Clark asked.
“You get to the point, where it’s like, ‘Strip down to your drawers,’” Kaepernick responded. “It feels like a meat market.”
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Kaepernick added that he did not have the “historical perspective at the time” in 2011 at the Scouting Combine to understand what he now considers a “parallel” to a slave auction.
The former NFL quarterback first made the comparison during a 2021 Netflix series. His reputation has never been the same since. That is how offensive it is to equate the horrors of bondage with playing in the NFL for millions of dollars a year.
But at this point, similar scrutiny must be applied to Clark.
Consider the wording of Clark’s question. He did not challenge Kaepernick’s premise or ask him to substantiate it. Instead, he led him toward the desired answer by asking “when” he realized the NFL draft process resembled slavery.
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Clark then nodded along as Kaepernick claimed that the draft and slave auctions are part of the “same process.”
OutKick asked Clark on Tuesday about his question to Kaepernick. We also asked whether he agreed with the analogy. Clark did not respond by the time of publication. We will update this story if he does.
At minimum, it is reasonable to conclude that Clark did not find the comparison outrageous. We have seen how he reacts when he disagrees with a statement. Just ask ESPN host Peter Schrager, whom Clark continued to shout at behind the scenes after an on-air disagreement last year.
On the merits, Kaepernick’s analogy is indefensible. No serious person could reasonably equate the NFL draft process with an auction block.
As the interviewer, Clark had a responsibility to identify the absurdity of the claim. He owed that to his audience. He did not live up to that responsibility.
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By allowing Kaepernick to promote such baseless hysteria, Clark turned his platform into an infomercial for the former quarterback’s propaganda campaign.
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And Clark knows better. He participated in the very process Kaepernick characterized as exploitative. Clark played 13 seasons in the NFL, a career he claims to revere.
There is virtually no chance Clark saw his time in the league as comparable to servitude.
That is what makes conversations like this sound dishonest and contrived. Kaepernick and Clark come across as two entitled millionaires attempting to convince average Americans that they are the true victims of American society.
It is deeply distasteful.
Still, we hope Clark responds. We’d like to put on the record his official reaction to Kaepernick comparing the NFL to the slave trade.
