Nick Bosa Takes A Knee
Sunday Night Football had concluded and I was on the couch full of hamburgers and potatoes, exhausted after a long day of watching the NFL for almost 12 hours (seven of them commercial free).
I know, I’m no hero. But it’s a tough job and someone has to do it.
I’m about to turn off the TV but the NBC broadcast throws it to their on-field reporter, Melissa Stark, for a post game interview with some of the players of the game. Included in this conversation is George Kittle (6 rec/128 yds/1 TD), Brock Purdy (18-26/1 TD/8 rush-56 yds/1 TD), and Isaac Guerendo (14 car/85 yds/1 TD).
Not a bad cast. Just ask the Cowboys, they rode them all game.
As Stark is asking Purdy about some obscure halftime adjustment that he most certainly will robotically answer with some mixture of football cliches, Nick Bosa decided he was going to make an unannounced appearance on the telecast that would break the internet.
“Alright, Nick Bosa with a message there,” said Melissa Stark after the interruption.
Live in the moment, I had no idea what happened. Bosa didn’t say a word. He just put on this shiny white hat. I had to go to Twitter (X) to see what I missed.
The message: the white hat with gold lettering that Bosa put on read ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.’
I didn’t even know they were making the MAGA hats in white/gold now. Actually, pretty sick color scheme. Way better than the red ones, if you ask me. Did Bosa make it himself? I had no idea he was so crafty. Maybe his wife is making them, like Kyle Juszczyk’s wife makes those cool jackets. What’s her name again? I think Kristin. Yea, Kristin. Those are sick. And she does it because she is passionate about it, too. They probably don’t need the money. Then again, you shouldn’t count other people’s money.
This is what was going through MY head.
The rest of the viewing public didn’t have much going through THEIR heads because they exploded into a flood of whataboutism and Molotov cocktails of racist exposition.
Left-leaning conversations focused in on the difference in treatment former NFL QB Colin Kaepernick experienced when he began kneeling during the national anthem on September 1, 2016 during a 49ers pre-season game.
Kaepernick spoke after that game in 2016 about his choice to kneel as a peaceful protest against racial injustice, police brutality and oppression in the US.
"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game.
"To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
At the time, rhetoric around Kaepernick’s choice to kneel during the anthem had some calling for him to be punished by the NFL and the 49ers for what they called “unpatriotic” and “disrespectful” activity not related to football.
The NFL’s statement on the matter was, “players are encouraged but not required to stand during the playing of the national anthem."
Chip Kelly, then 49ers head coach, added, "(it’s) his right as a citizen… it's not my right to tell him not to do something."
On the record, Kaepernick was never punished for his actions on or off the field. However, he has not played on an NFL team since opting out of his 2016 contract. To this day, he insists he has been blackballed by the NFL due to his highly publicized kneel-year. Though those rumors have yet to be substantiated, it most certainly looks like that is the case.
Right-leaning conversations focused in on the hypocrisy that coaches and athletes like Steve Kurr, Gregg Popovich, and Steph Curry are not scrutinized in the media in the same manner for their public endorsements (and criticisms) of a presidential candidate, both in and out of uniform.
Steph Curry recently expressed his endorsement for Kamala Harris during an official Golden State Warriors press conference. Curry even appeared via video during the Democratic National Convention to officially give his endorsement to Harris, while rocking his Olympic gold medal from the Paris 2024 games.
Last month, the WNBA champion New York Liberty all warmed-up in Kamala Harris T-shirts that read ‘Pres.’
This past Saturday, 15 NFL Hall of Famers endorsed the Harris-Walz ticket including all-time rushing leader Emmitt Smith and beloved Lions receiver Calvin 'Megatron’ Johnson.
You’d be hard-pressed to find any negative reporting on these coach and athlete presidential endorsements but Nick Bosa puts on a MAGA hat and people want him punished?
Bosa didn’t break any rules.
As per the NFL's 2024 rulebook, article 8: "The League will not grant permission for any club or player to wear, display, or otherwise convey messages, through helmet decals, arm bands, jersey patches, mouthpieces, or other items affixed to game uniforms or equipment, which relate to political activities or causes, other non-football events, causes or campaigns, or charitable causes or campaigns.”
But like most of the NFL rules, this one seems up for interpretation. I don’t see anything about wearing a political hat in a postgame interview, or while walking by a postgame interview, but we’ll certainly get more comment from the NFL this week on the matter.
Bosa did go more in-depth during his postgame presser with the media about his political fashion choice on national television.
“I’m not gonna talk too much about it, but I think it’s an important time,” Bosa replied when asked about his hat selection.
Much ado about nothing.
Either this guy got an earful from the 49ers PR team in the locker room OR the inside of his head is just a hamster on a wheel.
I like to think its a bit of both.
Regardless, the public’s problem with Bosa’s hat endorsement wasn’t that he didn’t articulate why he was giving his support to Trump and it wasn’t that we don’t want politics in sports.
Especially since politics have always gone hand-in-hand with sports.
Whether its Jesse Owens winning gold medals in the face of Adolf Hitler, Jackie Robinson becoming the first African American to play in major league baseball during segregation, Muhammed Ali refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam war, Billie Jean King and her Battle of the Sexes defeat of Bobby Riggs, and the list goes on and on.
We even invite the championship winning teams from almost every sport to visit The White House and have dinner with the current sitting president. And if the team disagrees with their politics, they no longer show up.
Also, by no means am I comparing Nick Bosa to the aforementioned athletes. They broke barriers and fought for what we now accept (rightfully) as the norm.
Bosa wore a hat.
But to say politics has no place in sports is a fallacy. If anything, politics IS sports… just with higher stakes.
The real problem lies in those four words that bring with them a different meaning to roughly half of the USA.
MAKE. AMERICA. GREAT. AGAIN.
To some, it is a racist calling card for the extreme conservative right-wing agenda. To others, it is a slogan that represents their desire for a return to USA-focused politics and legislation. But regardless where you exist on the political spectrum, the infamous MAGA hat does indeed send a message.
Bosa probably thinks he got HIS message across.
But we don’t know what platforms he supports or doesn’t. Maybe he’s a single-issue voter and staunchly supports pro-life candidates. Maybe he wants more tax cuts. Maybe he thinks Kamala Harris’s platform is decided week-to-week by the highest bidder.
Maybe he just thinks the hat looks cool.
Bomani Jones had a great summary of Nick Bosa’s non-explanation on his podcast The Right Time, “I’m not telling that man to shut up and rough the passer. No! I’m telling him to do the opposite. I’m saying speak up playboy, I can’t really understand what it is that you’re talking about, but I’d like to know a little bit more about your position. Can you tell me please?”
One thing we know for sure is that unlike Kaepernick, who took a knee and gave us the exact reasoning why, Bosa wore a MAGA hat on national tv, told us “it’s an important time,” then disappeared into the horizon like a sunset.