Albert R. Hunt, Columnist

History Will Smile on Colin Kaepernick. Wanna Bet?

Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith and John Carlos earned respect after being vilified for rights protests. Are you listening, Trump?

October 15, 2018 at 5:49 PM UTC

Corrected

October 16, 2018 at 12:47 PM UTC

By Albert R. Hunt

Albert R. Hunt is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was the executive editor of Bloomberg News, before which he was a reporter, bureau chief and executive Washington editor at the Wall Street Journal.

Thinking 50 years ahead.
Photographer: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

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Here’s a wager that I’ll win but will never collect: In 2068, Colin Kaepernick will be celebrated for the courage of his convictions while President Donald Trump will be vilified as a bigoted demagogue.

Kaepernick is the former National Football League quarterback who in 2016 knelt during the national anthem before games and inspired other players to join his protest against racial injustice. There was a political backlash, and for the past two years he hasn’t had so much as a tryout with any NFL team. (The Seattle Seahawks offered him one if he’d swear off his anthem protest; he refused.) Trump blasted players with obscenities for joining Kaepernick’s protest, charging that they were being disrespectful of the military. Not coincidentally, most of them are African-Americans.