Edited on Jun 23, 2026.
On August 26, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat on the bench during the national anthem before a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. A week later, after a conversation with former Green Beret and ex-NFL player Nate Boyer, he kneeled instead. The change in posture — from sitting to kneeling — was the result of a deliberate compromise: a gesture intended to draw attention to police violence against Black Americans while still honoring the men and women serving in the military. The protest has produced one of the most consequential cultural and political stories of the 2016 NFL season.
This is the working profile of where the anthem protest movement actually sits as the season nears its midpoint, what the NFL is doing in response, and what the broader sports and brand communications category should be watching.
How the movement has spread
Within weeks of Kaepernick's first kneel, players across the NFL — and across other leagues — have joined or adapted the protest.
Eric Reid. Kaepernick's 49ers teammate, has been kneeling alongside him throughout the season.
Brandon Marshall. The Denver Broncos linebacker kneeled and has lost endorsements with CenturyLink and the Air Academy Federal Credit Union within days of his protest.
Marcus Peters. The Kansas City Chiefs cornerback has raised a fist during the anthem.
The Miami Dolphins. Multiple Dolphins players, including Arian Foster and Kenny Stills, have kneeled during the anthem at several games this season.
Megan Rapinoe. The U.S. Women's National Team midfielder has kneeled at multiple soccer matches, triggering U.S. Soccer to consider policy responses.
College and high school athletes. The protest has spread beyond professional sports. College football players, high school football players, and athletes across multiple other sports have adopted similar gestures.
The protest has stabilized into a regular but minority practice across the NFL. Different players are protesting different combinations of issues. The unifying theme — police violence against Black Americans and broader racial justice — has been articulated more clearly by some protesting players than others.
What the NFL is doing
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has defended the players' right to protest while indicating his personal disagreement with the gesture. The league has not implemented a policy requiring players to stand for the anthem. The current league position is that the protest is constitutionally protected speech that the league will not penalize.
Individual team responses have varied substantially. Some team owners — including Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones — have indicated they would prefer players to stand. Other teams have been more openly supportive of player protests. The variance reflects broader political differences across NFL ownership.
Television broadcasts have generally not shown the anthem live across recent years. The decision predates the Kaepernick protest but has become a contested point as the protest movement has expanded. Some networks have begun showing the anthem to give visibility to the protests. Other networks have continued not to broadcast it.
The Kaepernick career situation
Kaepernick has been the starting quarterback for the 49ers since taking over from Blaine Gabbert earlier in the season. His performance has been mixed. The 49ers have been one of the weaker teams in the league and his statistics reflect the broader team performance.
Kaepernick's contract situation will become a substantial question at the end of the season. He has the right to opt out of his contract in March 2017. Multiple NFL observers have speculated about whether his protest will affect his ability to find an NFL job if he becomes a free agent.
The career-cost question is one of the more consequential aspects of the broader protest story. Whether Kaepernick is able to continue his NFL career after this season will signal how the league and individual teams ultimately respond to the protest.
The cultural and political response
The protest has produced a substantial cultural and political response across multiple sectors.
Political commentary. Both major presidential campaigns have addressed the protest. The broader political environment around the 2016 election has been substantially shaped by debates about race, policing, and patriotism that the anthem protests have intersected.
Veteran community response. The veteran community has been split. Some veterans, including Nate Boyer who advised Kaepernick on the kneeling posture, have supported the protest as constitutionally protected speech. Others have characterized the protest as disrespectful to military service.
Public opinion polling. Public opinion polling shows substantial division along racial lines. Black Americans broadly support the protest. White Americans broadly oppose it. The polarization reflects broader American racial dynamics around policing and race.
Sponsorship pressure. Some NFL sponsors have expressed concern about the protests. Other sponsors have been openly supportive. The league has not yet experienced substantial sponsorship withdrawal but the conversation is ongoing.
What the broader brand and sports communications category should take from this
Five operating considerations for brand and PR teams thinking about the anthem protests and the broader athlete activism category.
Athlete activism is becoming structural. The Kaepernick protest is part of a broader pattern of athlete activism that includes the LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Dwyane Wade ESPYs speech earlier this year, the WNBA player protests around the same issues, and the broader Black Lives Matter engagement by professional athletes. Athlete activism is no longer episodic. It is becoming a sustained category.
Brand sponsorship calculations are changing. Brands sponsoring athletes need to think more carefully about how athlete activism affects brand positioning. The historical assumption that sponsored athletes will not engage with controversial issues no longer holds.
League-level communications work is becoming more complex. The NFL, NBA, MLB, and the broader sports league category face increasingly complex communications environments. Player activism, fan response, sponsor concerns, political pressure, and media coverage all interact in ways that the historical league communications model was not designed to handle.
Symbolic gestures carry communicative power. The kneel is one of the most photographable and discussable gestures in modern sports. The simplicity of the gesture has produced sustained coverage that more elaborate statements would not have produced. Symbolic gestures with controlled meaning are more communicatively durable than statements.
The protest will likely outlast the season. Whether Kaepernick continues to play in the NFL or not, the broader athlete activism category is likely to continue evolving across the coming years. Brand and PR teams should be planning for sustained athlete activism rather than treating the current cycle as a one-off.
The bottom line
The Kaepernick anthem protest is one of the most consequential cultural and political stories of the 2016 NFL season. The movement has spread beyond Kaepernick to multiple players across multiple sports. The NFL has defended the players' right to protest while indicating disagreement with the gesture. The career consequences for Kaepernick personally remain to be seen. The broader athlete activism category is shifting structurally. The brand and PR teams that understand the changes now will be ahead of teams that try to absorb the shifts after they have hardened. The story will continue developing across the rest of the season and into 2017.
