Adidas North American President: Company Would Sign Colin Kaepernick If He Signs to NFL Team
Adidas North American president Mark King said Friday that the apparel company wants to sign Colin Kaepernick, but has held off because he is not on an NFL roster, according to Greg Moore of The Arizona Republic.
King was speaking during a Q&A with the CEO of Arizona State University's Global Sports Institute, Kenneth L. Shropshire, at the Arizona State Global Sports Summit, when he explained the apparel company "would definitely want to sign" the quarterback if an NFL team picks him up, according to The Republic. King added that the company did not want to look like it was "taking advantage of the noise or interest that he had generated," but added that Adidas has shifted to represent an "intersection between culture and sports" over the past three years, according to The Republic.
According to The Republic, King said the company is "not in the business of activism," but it does want "athletes to tell their story."
"We love athletes that have a platform to make the world a better place," King said according to The Republic. "If they're an activist in a way that brings attention to something that moves the world forward, even if there's controversy at that moment, we're really interested in those athletes because I think it represents the world today."
Kaepernick was most recently linked to the Seattle Seahawks, but his visit with the team was reportedly postponed after he declined to stop kneeling during the national anthem as a protest against police brutality and racial inequality in the United States.
