Conservatives call liberals “snowflakes” and then lose it when NFL players dare to engage in the peaceful protest of taking a knee during the national anthem. This week, Nike unveiled a new ad campaign honoring one of the figureheads of that peaceful protest movement, Colin Kaepernick — and predictably, many conservatives lost it.
Country singer John Rich tweeted:
‘Hey Nike I guess you made Kaepernick your new “face” of the brand because you love the way his socks look with your shoes? Reebok here we come.’
In that post, he was referring to some socks Kaepernick wore at one point comparing police officers to pigs, as he made clear with an included image.
Hey @Nike I guess you made @Kaepernick7 your new “face” of the brand because you love the way his socks look with your shoes? @Reebok here we come. #WeStand @TomiLahren @greggutfeld @kilmeade @RedneckRiviera pic.twitter.com/tgtbl8VFzv
— John Rich (@johnrich) September 3, 2018
Kaepernick has addressed the controversy in the past, explaining with a social media post of his own that the attire choice was born from anger with the rogue cops in police departments across the country, not with police officers as a whole.
At the time back in 2016 he wrote:
‘I wore these socks, in the past, because of the rogue cops that are allowed to hold positions in police departments, [who] not only put the community in danger, but also put the cops that have the right intentions in danger by creating an environment of tension and mistrust.’
Rich didn’t care. In a follow-up Twitter post, he dug into his position, writing:
‘When you compare police to PIGS, this ends the discussion for me. If you don’t find a problem with that, then feel free to unfollow me. The police JUST SHOWED UP at our concert to protect and serve, I’ll ask them what they think and get back to you…’
Kaepernick didn’t broadly compare police to pigs — it’s not really that difficult to understand. He was fed up with officers like the recently convicted of murder Roy Oliver, who shot into a car of teenagers, killing 15-year-old unarmed black teen Jordan Edwards.
Does Rich believe that those actions are justified? Can he not agree that taking the life of an innocent teenager because of an inability and/or unwillingness to deal with the realities of modern life is worse than “pig-like”?
Apparently not.
In a widely mocked follow-up tweet, he wrote:
‘Our Soundman just cut the Nike swoosh off his socks. Former marine. Get ready Nike multiply that by the millions.’
Our Soundman just cut the Nike swoosh off his socks. Former marine. Get ready @Nike multiply that by the millions. pic.twitter.com/h8kj6RXe7j
— John Rich (@johnrich) September 3, 2018
Nike has no reason to care that an angry conservative guy cut up articles of clothing he already owned in order to “own the libs.” Why should they? The company already got anything they were going to get out of the relationship through the original purchase price.
That didn’t stop others from following suit, though.
In the original ad that so set them all off, an image of Kapernick’s face is accompanied by a message:
‘Believe in something — even if it means sacrificing everything.’
Kaepernick hasn’t found work as a pro-NFL player since the 2016-2017 season concluded, which he’s filed a court case accusing NFL execs of collusion to keep him off the field over. That case was recently approved to go to trial, putting the league under continued scrutiny.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
