Daily News, Jemele Hill: Kaepernick Worthy of Smithsonian, NFL Treatment Embarrassing

July 12th, 2018 8:23 PM

Colin Kaepernick may never play in the NFL again and Jemele Hill may never host Sports Center again, but both have ridden atrocious behavior to the lofty acclaim of media libs. The New York Daily News' Spencer Dukoff and Hill noted that Kaepernick has etched his place in history and a place in the Smithsonian, while Hill will soon be sharing a stage with Hillary Rodham Clinton and other liberal elites.

Dukoff and Hill paid glowing tributes to Kaepernick (in photo with Hill), who talked, tweeted and kneeled his way out of the NFL. “He’s never going to play in the NFL again,” Hill told the Daily News. It’s disappointing, it’s disheartening and if you’re the NFL, you should feel very embarrassed by that.”

The NFL is making an example of Kaepernick to dissuade other players from activism, Dukoff writes. And that, says Hill is “startling,” because the league has a "spotty track record of disciplining criminals.” Formerly a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, the unwanted Kaepernick is waging war on the NFL, suing the league for alleged collusion because no team will touch him.

“It wasn’t some crime (Kaepernick) did to somebody, it wasn’t hurting another person,” Hill said. “It was using his right as an American citizen to call out some of the ills and atrocities in this country.” Nevertheless, he is “already in the history books.” And more:

“He’s got an exhibit in the Smithsonian. He’s going to have streets and schools named after him.”

Hill told Dukoff that society will one day soften on Kaepernick and view his national anthem protests favorably, just as it now remembers Muhammad Ali’s refusal to serve in Vietnam:

“After seeing what happened in Vietnam and how Ali’s career and activism further blossomed, people now say, ‘Oh, he made the right decision. That was great!’ People want to wait until they’re proven right to actually say something is a good idea.”

With Kaepernick properly lionized by the two lib writers, Dukoff turned his focus on Hill and described her as a "lightning rod for controversy and as a pioneering black, female journalist in an industry dominated by white men.":

"It’s one of the reasons she’s been invited to speak alongside newsmakers like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Laverne Cox, Chelsea Handler and Martha Stewart at Ozy Fest, a two-day festival July 21-22 featuring panels, talks and live performances in Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield."

That's how much calling President Trump a "white supremacist" (in 2017) can do for a social justice warrior's career. Hill abhors the thought of sticking to sports and says, “Sports is not a shield from the real world.” She said it's the job of all journalists to confront the policies of Trump, and adds:

“There’s no corner in America we can really go and not be bothered unless you’re watching cartoons all day, but that’s not real life. People act like this is some kind of new phenomenon where we’re going through a phase of talking about sports and politics, or sports and social issues, when that’s literally been the case with sports always.”

Hill said the media has been speaking out against injustices for the past 76 years, since the Los Angeles Times editorialized against the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Yes, on the editorial page. Sports writers stayed in their lane and stuck to sports in those days.

Left-stream media were digging Dukoff's story. The Boston Herald ran it, too.