Les Carpenter’s new column in The Guardian singles out the most important NFL player of 2017: Colin Kaepernick, the man who never took a snap. As NFL teams refused to sign Kaepernick and it became increasingly clear that the political activist would not play in 2017, players kneeling and continuing Kaepernick’s mission became a more dominant storyline than any in-game action. Having survived Trump’s verbal attacks and a year’s worth of unemployment, Kaepernick’s cultural power is obvious. The lasting legacy he has had on the league that left him behind, Carpenter argues, is a profound statement from a man who neither played in a game nor said much publicly about the NFL in 2017.
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