By: Symphony Webb
Earlier this week social media went crazy as former NFL quarterback Mike Vick offered his unwarranted advice about NFL player Colin Kaepernick and his image. Vick sat down with Speak for Yourself on Monday and, in the interview, sports journalist Jason Whitlock expressed his concerns for Kaepernick’s career as football player.
“I think he needs to actually talk and put his name on what he feels about the NFL and wanting to play, I think he needs to speak for himself,” said Whitlock in reference to Colin Kaepernick being blackballed in the NFL as opposed to when Vick went to prison for heading a dogfighting ring in 2007.
"First thing we got to get Colin to do is cut his hair." — @MikeVick advises Kaepernick on rebuilding his image pic.twitter.com/YENvUPOIgP
— Speak For Yourself (@SFY) July 17, 2017
Vick went on to speak on why he feels Kaepernick should change his image.
“The first thing we got to get Colin to do is cut his hair. Listen, I’m not up here to try to be politically correct, but even if he puts cornrows in it, I don’t think he should represent himself in that way in terms of just a hairstyle. Just go clean-cut. Why not? You’re already dealing with a lot of controversy surrounding this issue. What he needs to do is just try to be presentable,” Vick said.
Surely Kaepernick’s hairstyle and his ability to play football has nothing to do with the other, but given society’s racial climate and police brutality against Black people in America and his decision to take a knee during the national anthem has plenty to do with why he is now an unsigned pro-football player.
Kaepernick chose to respond to Vick’s comments with a simple tweet entitled “Stockholm Syndrome.”
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) July 18, 2017
It is unfortunate that Vick feels that something is wrong with Kaepernick’s afro, cornrows and t-shirts stating “I know my rights,” which he wears to educate the youth about their rights. At one point in Vick’s career, he too wore cornrows, afros and du-rags. Vick later took to his own twitter account and posted this statement.
— Michael Vick (@MichaelVick) July 18, 2017
We hope to see Kaepernick back on the football field soon, afro and all.
