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Former 49ers star Colin Kaepernick
Stand Up For What's Right

History will remember Kaepernick like Muhammad Ali, says two-time Super Bowl winner

Osi Umenyiora expects others will come to regret not supporting Colin Kaepernick.

OSI UMENYIORA BELIEVES history will remember former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick like Muhammad Ali and Rosa Parks.

Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since the end of the 2016 season during which, as a 49ers star, he was praised and criticised for kneeling during the national anthem in protest at perceived police brutality and racial injustice.

The 30-year-old has continued this stance and, ahead of the 2018 campaign, is at the forefront of discussions again after becoming the face of Nike’s new advertising campaign, gaining support from the likes of LeBron James and Serena Williams.

Not all fellow athletes have supported Kaepernick, but two-time Super Bowl winner Umenyiora expects others will come to regret their approach, ranking the Nike man’s work alongside Ali, who refused to serve in the Vietnam War, and Parks, a civil rights activist.

“I think everybody against it now will look back in the future with regret,” Umenyiora told BBC Radio 5 live. “He’ll be regarded as someone that did something special.

Looking further back down the line, back in history, we’ve already seen what Muhammad Ali and Rosa Parks have done.

“And when you look into the future, Colin Kaepernick is going to go down as this particular type of athlete, somebody who took a stand for something he believed in.

“So Nike is eventually going to come down on the right side of history. We respect the office of the president of the United States but I’m not quite sure what [Donald Trump, a chief critic of Kaepernick] is doing.”

The NFL released a statement on Tuesday saying the issues raised by Kaepernick “deserve our attention and action”.

Last October, Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL in which he alleged the league and franchise owners colluded to keep him from signing with another team.

An NFL request to dismiss the case was denied last month.

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