There’s nothing more American than a good ol’ game of American football in the first days of the fall, probably more American than apple pie, Coke, and McDonald’s all crammed into a pair of Nike shoes. Even as subpar that the Chicago Bears are, Sundays are for in front of the TV watching our new “Lovable Losers” compete at Soldier Field.

However, in recent years we have seen NFL games become a medium for political statements, for better or for worse. Beyoncé channeled a tribute to the Black Panther movement during her stunt with Coldplay at the Super Bowl L halftime show in 2016. Lady Gaga gave a very subtle message in protest of Donald Trump during her halftime show the following year at Super Bowl LI, singing a popular protest song and hugging a person of color.

And of course, more controversially is Colin Kaepernick, who famously took a knee during the national anthem to bring awareness to police brutality.

Kaepernick has been a free agent since his departure from the San Francisco 49ers in 2016, and has since been involved in a youth campaign rally empowering and educating Black youth known as the Know Your Rights camp, and though it has been the general thought that Kaepernick has been unsigned this whole time because he simply isn’t good, it’s now been revealed that most NFL officials won’t sign him to a team because of his controversial gesture during national anthems. One instance of this happening was when an ESPN report revealed that the Baltimore Ravens’ owner Steve Bisciotti allegedly told head coach John Harbaugh to not sign him due to the risk of hurting the Ravens’ image.

It has thus become evident that Colin Kaepernick is jobless on an athletic level because of unfairness and incompetency by NFL officials who refuse to condemn white supremacy and police brutality by allegedly denying Kaepernick a deal with a team, and therefore I am joining the countless number of individuals who will abstain from watching NFL games this season.

Even those who don’t necessarily agree with Kaepernick’s views think it’s unfair with how he is being treated, most notably Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

It should also be noted that a number of NFL executives made donations to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, Trump of which being one of many right-wing critics of Kaepernick. Though NFL authorities have the right to deny athletes based on whether or not they are actually proficient in football, they do not have the right to deny athletes based on harmless acts that expose a truth to a so-called “post-racial” society we live in. The NFL has become a juggernaut for subliminal white supremacy with its enabling of leadership donating to lunatics like Donald Trump.

Colin Kaepernick’s situation is yet another instance of the work that needs to continue being done for the struggle for civil rights. It also shows one key paradox within society: if people of color protest and/or cause commotion in the street, opponents will believe they’re crazy “thugs”, yet if they silently and peacefully protest like Kaepernick did, it’s “un-American” and “un-patriotic”.

Like I have said in my earlier piece on Charlottesville, it is not un-American to call out the crimes against humanity that the United States has sanctioned throughout its history, but it is un-American to deny it. Colin Kaepernick is not disgracing any troops or veterans by kneeling, but he is honoring them by exercising his constitutional right to expression and speech while subsequently exercising the patriotic action of dissent.

I believe sports are one of the fundamental building blocks to world peace, or at least close to it, simply because any sport nameable contains an unspoken language that anyone can understand. A field, a court, a rink, or even a pool could be the site of something that can build bridges instead of walls. I believe that Colin Kaepernick is doing just that by exposing an apparently unspeakable issue on a platform that he encompasses, but the incompetence and sheer hatred of NFL leaders is blocking him from doing just that.

Therefore, I am joining the movement in choking the NFL’s Achilles’ heel of viewership and ad revenue to send a message to NFL to sign Kaepernick, and you should give it a chance too.