Former State QB Glennon Cast as Symbol of NFL White Privilege

Comments by Chicago Bears player Akeem Hicks have thrust former NC State quarterback Mike Glennon into the middle of the current racial tension in America and the debate over the NFL's blackballing of Colin Kaepernick

Poor Mike Glennon.

The former NC State quarterback can't seem to avoid controversy, even though he does nothing to court it.  

He was first thrust into the center of a debate that rages to this day when he was cast as the player that forced then Wolfpack coach Tom O'Brien to push Russell Wilson out the door to Wisconsin so he could become the starter. 

Now he's become the subject of yet another narrative that reaches far beyond the football field. 

At the end of a lengthy interview about the current state of racial tension in America and the refusal of NFL teams to employ Colin Kaepernick because of his public stance on police brutality toward African-Americans, Chicago Bears defensive tackle Akeem Hicks portrayed Glennon as the symbol of white privledge in sports with one blunt four-word quote. 

“We signed Mike Glennon,” he said.

Back page for Thursday. Our @JasonLieser reports on Akiem Hicks' brutal honesty. https://t.co/xIEIUjhMV9 pic.twitter.com/HBn5ToJS38

— Sun-Times Sports (@suntimes_sports) June 4, 2020

Kaepernick, a charismatic figure whose passing and running led the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl in January 2013, has been unable to find a job in the NFL over the past three seasons since he began kneeling during the national anthem before games as a form of peaceful protest.

“Do I know if he would have gotten a huge deal and gone onto be a Hall of Fame quarterback?" Hicks said of Kaepernick. "I don’t know these things. I just know that when he took a knee, he was silenced — or they attempted to silence him.”

Glennon, meanwhile, has bounced around the league since being taken in the third round of the 2013 draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

Despite statistics that pale in comparison to those put up by Kaepernick, the former Wolfpack star was signed by the bears to a three-year, $45 million contract in 2017 and was immediately named the team's starter.

But he was benched after just four games and released at the end of the season. He has since been picked up by the Arizona Cardinals, Oakland Raiders and his current team, the Jacksonville Jaguars.

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