COLUMN: You Can Knock Colin Kaepernick; Don't Call Him Un-American

Colin Kaepernick stood tall while sitting down, which is not an easy thing to do. In fact, what he did in benching himself for the national anthem on Friday night was the hardest thing he could possibly do. The easy thing? That would be standing silently with his teammates on the San Francisco 49ers sideline, cutting against the grain of his conscience. Nobody would've known the difference. Nobody would have reason to challenge his patriotism, to call him all kinds of nasty names, and to remind him, by the way, that he has devolved into a lousy quarterback who should be spending more time with his playbook anyway. But he planted himself among the Gatorade buckets, understanding that in an age of 24/7 surveillance, he would be outed soon enough. Kaepernick didn't strike the kind of dramatic pose made by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City, and that was OK. He made his statement loudly and clearly. "I am not going to stand up to show pride...