I have had about a week now to process this whole Colin Kaepernick situation, and I think I'm finally ready to give my take.

First off, I have absolutely no problem with his choice to not stand for the national anthem. Why do we have to stand for the anthem anyway? It's been put into our heads since we were kids, but when I am at a sporting event, I cannot wait for the anthem to be over so I can sit down and enjoy myself.

Secondly, his reasoning, I totally agree with. There are a lot of problems in this country right now. There are racist police officers and people that are getting away with murdering minorities, and that is a very big problem. Our country is becoming a scary place for minorities, and when one person cannot take a stance without getting raked over the coals, that's frightening. Kaepernick is no Malcolm X or Muhammed Ali, not even close, but he is allowed to take a stance and protest. For all the crazy right wingers, this country was built on free speech, which Kaepernick is doing, so don't call him out for being un American, he is doing one of the most American things anyone can do. I fully stand by, and respect Kaepernick's choice to not stand for the anthem, just like I did with Mahmoud Abdul Rauf's choice to not stand for the anthem back in the 90's in the NBA, after converting to the Muslim faith. These athletes are people, just like you and me, and they have a right to their opinions. You don't have to like, or agree with them, but they can have an opinion. So, yeah, I fully stand by Kaepernick's reasoning for doing this protest. More power to you Mr. Kaepernick.

I do have some problems with the person, not the protest. First off, for people to compare what Kaepernick is doing to the Ali protests of the Vietnam War, or everything that Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr did for civil rights, stop it. Colin Kaepernick is not a leader, or an athlete of great stature, so these comparisons need to stop right there. He is not Ali, Malcolm X, MLK or even Jesse Jackson or Jim Brown. He is not nearly, nor will he ever be, as important and influential as those guys were and are. When I want to hear about civil injustices from athletes, I will pick old Ali quotes, or just listen to what Jim Brown has to say. They are so much more influential and important than Colin Kaepernick.

I feel like Kaepernick's actions, I don't mean to sound crass, is a bit of a stunt to keep his name in the mouths of sports analysts and journalists. I personally have not even thought about Colin Kaepernick the football player, in two or three years. The 49ers and Kaepernick have become irrelevant. Colin Kaepernick has not been the same QB since Jim Harbaugh put all his eggs in his basket and traded away Alex Smith and built his offense around the young moblie QB's talent. Sure, he led them to a Super Bowl, which they lost, but since then, the 49ers have been terrible.

First off, they fired Harbaugh after he and the owner just couldn't get along. Then, they gave Kaepernick a huge extension and decided to completely build around him. Then, the 49ers started to lose players left and right to free agency, trades or retirement. Last season watching the 49ers was horrendous. They looked so bad on offense, I would leave the room when the Red Zone Network would switch over to 49ers games. They just couldn't move the ball. Kaepernick's biggest threat, his legs, became neutralized. Teams figured him out. He just couldn't make the necessary throws to compete at an NFL level. It got so bad for him, the 49ers benched him for Blaine Gabbert. That's right, the same Blaine Gabbert that couldn't cut it in Jacksonville, supplanted Kaepernick as the starter. The 49ers still stunk, but Kaepernick did not see the field again after this benching.

Going into this season, it was widely known that the 49ers hadn't picked a QB yet. In fact, they were shopping Kaepernick, until they hired the incredibly overrated Chip Kelly as coach. Some, not me, seem to think that Chip Kelly can get something out of Kaepernick. I disagree. During the preseason Kaepernick has not performed well. He sat the first two preseason games, then all anyone talked about was him sitting during the anthem in the third preseason game because his on field performance was atrocious. Again, he couldn't make the reads or the throws necessary to succeed in the NFL. But, he did keep his name in the news for sitting during the anthem.

This is my biggest problem. Yeah, the GM's that are coming out and saying mean things about him, where have all you assholes been when people bring up all the assault and abuse from current players. I didn't hear any "anonymous" GM's taking Adrian Peterson or Greg Hardy to task for what they did, which is about ten thousand times worse than what Kaepernick is doing, but he is not as good a player as those two are, so these "anonymous" GM's keep their mouths shut on them. But, they bring the hammer down on Kaepernick. What a joke. But, all these reasons above are why I think this may be a publicity stunt just to keep his, meaning Kaepernick's, name in the sports news. He is not a good QB anymore. He is a shell of himself. He doesn't play with the reckless abandon and love that he did a few years back when he was running all over Green Bay in the playoffs. He has become a mediocre QB, fighting for the starting job on a mediocre team. The 49ers are very bad, and Kaepernick cannot keep that starting job on lock.

Like I said at the top, I wholeheartedly stand by the message he's trying to get across, I just don't think they have the right messanger. I wish someone like Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady or Cam Newton were the ones doing the protest. I think that QB's like those guys should join in with Kaepernick's protest, there is still time, because they would be able to shed some real light on the problems going on in the US right now. And, I wonder how "anonymous" GM's would react if Brady, Rodgers or Newton joined in. Would they curse those guys out? Would they say that they are locker room cancer? Would they say that they wouldn't want them on their teams? No, no and no. Those GM's would not say one word. So, yes Colin Kaepernick, I wholeheartedly support you and your protest, but I wish you were more of a relevant player, because that would make this protest that much more important. People would have to look at this problem much more seriously if you were a better, more important player. The talking heads at ESPN and at SI wouldn't be able to just push it aside and say that this doesn't matter because Kaepernick is irrelevant. If it were any of the other three QB's I mentioned, this protest would have some real momentum.

Anyway, you be you Colin Kaepernick, and stand up for what you believe in. I cannot say it enough, I fully support him, but he is irrelevant. This is the true definition of a double edged sword. No one wins because of the irrelevancy of the player bringing the message.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.