Earlier this week, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick announced that he will be abandoning the gesture of kneeling during the playing of the "Star Spangled Banner", also known as our national anthem.
This announcement is a tad ironic, since it was also announced this week that Kaepernick would be opting out of his contract with the 49ers, effectively making him a free agent and putting his services on the open market.
Of course, this was a no-brainer. Newly minted general manager John Lynch said that Kaepernick wasn't going to be kept by the team, looking instead to start from scratch at the quarterback position. Lynch made those comments on Sirius XMRadio that Kaepernick and the team would be going separate ways.
And while it can debated (and most assuredly will be) whether the team opted to allow Kaepernick to save face with his own announcement, the fact remains that Kaepernick's days are done in San Francisco.
One lingering question, however, remains.
Are Kaepernick's days done in the National Football League?
Because I could make the case that Kaepernick's decision to abandon the kneeldown won't make a hell of a lot of difference if he plays in Canada. Unless there's a massive breakdown of the social and/or political climate in Saskatchewan or Ottawa, chances are there's not a lot of need for simple gestures that may inflame the fanbase of the respective teams in those parts of the country.
Now let me get this out of the way here, just so we know where we all stand on this topic.
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that many of you reading this blog hated the kneeldown gesture. Speaking to many of you, both on and off the air, many fans expressed a variety of different emotions regarding Kaepernick's decision to not participate in standing during the playing of the anthem.
I didn't care then, and I do not care now.
I also do not believe for a moment that Kaepernick's decision, nor the reaction from fans around the country, played a significant role in the sagging television ratings we heard so much about during the most recently completed NFL season.
There's simply far too much logical evidence out there which supports my claim.
But we don't always live in the same community of logic and reasonable reactions.
We want our outrage to be validated, no matter how volatile it may be and no matter whether it's based on fact, or just the ability to pound our fists into a table or stomp our feet into the illusion of higher ground.
But all that reaction and outrage.... supposedly it's all gone now.
You may now return to your passionate search for another villain or simply to watching sports without supposedly violating some silent and self-indulgent pledge.
Kaepernick's not going to kneel any more.
Of course, this brings us back to the main topic: Is he going to have a place to prove himself?
The National Football League is a business, which - almost by definition - makes it a greedy operation.
Success on the field doesn't always equate to success in the marketplace. Some of the better teams in the NFL as far as winning records and playoff game successes didn't fare so well as far as sales of jerseys or merchandise were concerned.
In the 2015-16 season, which culminated with the Denver Broncos defeating the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50, only five of the 50 top selling jerseys among NFL stars played for either of those teams. Seattle led the league among top-50 jersey sales with six players, while Green Bay had four.
Kaepernick's jersey sales in 2015 were ranked 13th overall.
But last season, during the kneeldown shenanigans, while many of you were out there shaking your fists and collectively sparking false and phony outrage, Kaepernick's jersey sales shot through the roof.
In fact, sources within the league confirmed to ESPN that more Kaepernick gear was sold on the team's website during the opening weeks of the so-called "great debate" than at any point in the past eight months combined.
Which again, calls into question any logical discussion about Kaepernick and his stance significantly affecting the sagging television ratings.
Kaepernick's latest decision to abandon the kneeldown, quite frankly, is disappointing.
Not because he's suddenly become a better citizen, or a supposedly more respectful American. I don't believe that one's reverence to a symbol is equivalent to being labeled a good citizen or a patriotic American.
Kaepernick's decision to abandon the kneeldown is - following the logic - good business.
If he appears to be over his silent protest, he appears more palatable to prospective teams looking to sign a quarterback with, shall we say, average skills.
If he does sign with a team, he does a press conference, answers some pesky questions, stands up for a song and the narrative moves along with nary a bump in the road.
And he knows this. Kaepernick may be a lot of things (depending on who you ask), but he's not a dumb man. He knows that he'll have to acquiesce a bit in order to get back into the good graces of prospective future teammates, coaching staffs and front office types.
Why?
Because business matters, that's why.
I had far more respect for Kaepernick during this past season when he refused to stand.
But now his protest days are supposedly over.
And the echoes of those reactionary stomping, pounding, grumbling and shouting protesters will smile and think they've won.
And they did.
They exposed Colin Kaepernick for sadly being just like too many of us... he sold out.
He became a hypocrite.
He'll sell his soul and his conscience for another crack at the big money.
I can't say I wouldn't have either.
I'm fortunate that I don't have to make that choice.
That is all.