Shirts with a rifle scope trained on Colin Kaepernick selling for $10 outside of Ralph Wilson stadium. pic.twitter.com/bSuxF3G5qq
— robertklemko (@RobertKlemko) October 16, 2016
Colin Kaepernick will make his first start of the 2016 season on Sunday afternoon during San Francisco’s game against Buffalo. It’s the first time that Kaepernick will start a game for the 49ers since November of last year, and since that game, he’s made headlines for his protest of the national anthem.
Kaepernick has received a ton of hate for his protest, and while most people who disagree with him have been pretty civil when they discuss him, some have been really, really harsh. Apparently, some Bills fans fall into the second category. We all know that Kaepernick was going to walk into a hostile environment on Sunday, but these t-shirts made by Buffalo fans take that to another level.
This isn’t the only anti-Kaepernick material that exists, as some Bills fan made a koozie designed to insult the Niners signal caller.
These are for sale in the #Bills lot.
2 for $5. pic.twitter.com/NLTC2C9DeZ— Duffy on WCMF (@DuffyOnWCMF) October 16, 2016
Others made signs, one which made fun of Kaepernick’s name in the most third grade way possible, another to praise members of the police force.
https://twitter.com/JoeYerdon/status/787680865799311360
Guy says he's showing disrespect to Kaepernick by misspelling his name pic.twitter.com/ctShf5crUB
— Nick Veronica (@NickVeronica) October 16, 2016
And still others made him into a tackling dummy:
https://twitter.com/RobertKlemko/status/787697859739148288
Meanwhile, Kaepernick hung out inside of New Era Field. While there was a ton of hate for him outside of the game, he seemed perfectly content chilling with fans and signing autographs.
https://twitter.com/thadbrown7/status/787679944067407872
No matter where you stand on Kaepernick’s decision to protest the anthem, shirts that depict him getting targeted by a rifle scope is downright insane. The “sit down and shut up” stuff merely tries to minimize and take away his voice as he speaks up in the face of a serious issue, but wishing harm on someone is crossing a line – especially when the thing Kap is standing (or kneeling) for is the idea that people’s lives have value.
While Kaepernick’s probably heard much worse than this over the last few months, it seems as though it’s going to get even louder as long as he’s back in the starter’s role.
