Kaepernick Message: America 'Wasn't Ready For It,' Says WFT QB Alex Smith

He's been four full seasons out of football, so Colin Kaepernick in the NFL is no longer an issue. Nevertheless, opinions about Kaepernick go on forever. And maybe - while everyone seems to have an opinion - the thoughts of some should be presented without comment.

“It’s so tragic looking at it,” Washington quarterback Alex Smith told Kyle Brandt on the 10 Questions podcast. “I think he was ahead of his time, certainly trying to call out social injustice, especially around police reform. The country wasn’t ready. Nobody was ready for it.''

Smith is of course the quarterback who was replaced by Kaepernick in San Francisco, with the latter going on to help the Niners to the Super Bowl. His perspective, at 36, seems worthy of a voice.

Kaepernick was, Smith said, "trying to tell everybody through a completely peaceful manner (kneeing during the playing of the national anthem before NFL games) about some of the things going on in this country that had been going on for a long time, and to see the backlash that happened, it hurts. It hurts looking back at it.''

Smith said he is proud of Kaepernick's bravery as a spokesman against injustice.

"The country wasn’t ready for it, and he suffered the repercussions with his job,'' Smith said. "I mean, he lost his livelihood. . . . (It was) tragic, sad, but obviously he was incredibly brave and certainly proud of him, to even know him and what he’s done, because fast-forward a few years later and I think we all were like, ‘He obviously was trying to tell us something.'”

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