MRC's Years of Kaepernick Derangement Syndrome

Mysterious Media Research Center blogger Jay Maxson just can't stop ranting about the existence of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

By Terry Krepel
Posted 1/31/2019

Graham and Bozell also complained:

In the background, the radicals keep ranting about a "boycott" of quarterback Colin Kaepernick (even though some of his kneeling chums, like safety Eric Reid, returned to the game). Everyone in the media adored Kaepernick's high-profile turn in a Nike ad, and the ABC sitcom "Black-ish" celebrated him as a civil rights icon. These activists in the media avoid Kaepernick's actual on-field decline, and his offensive statements, like when he wore socks that depicted cops as pigs, and when he called the police a "fugitive slave patrol" that needs to be "dismantled."

The duo concluded their column by complaining: "If being a wealthy and prominent athlete goads you into standing up for people who aren't as fortunate as you, there are plenty of forums ... just not the field. This way, people tuning into the games can just focus on the action." But the kneeling was never "on the field" or during a game.

Bozell and Graham's insistence that athletes have other forums to express their grievances belies the fact that the MRC has spent much of the past couple years trying to shout down Kaepernick and attacking anyone who defended him in those very forums.

The MRC's lead victim in what can only be described as Kaepernick Derangement Syndrome is Jay Maxson, a sports-oriented blogger for its NewsBusters operation who mysteriously has no social-media footprint outside of his MRC work. After Kaepernick became a free agent in March 2017, Maxson followed in the tradition of previous MRC sports bloggers and wrote a sneering "letter" for Kaepernick to send to interested teams:

Any time I couldn’t find an open receiver and it looked like I was going to get clobbered, I ran like a kid in Ferguson getting chased by cops for no good reason – rushing for 2,300 career yards. As you can see, I will be a great double threat as a passer and runner as your QB.

[...]

I believe in coming out of my gated community now and then giving back to the people who buy my #7 shirts. So I will be available work with the Jets’ community outreach department to help spread Black Lives Matters power principles. When I’m not busy doing BLM fundraisers, I will be available to speak to school groups and to urban journalists friendly to the cause.

In fact, Kaepernick has put his money where his mouth is, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities. A couple weeks later, Maxson cheered that Kaepernick hadn't been immediately signed, even though there was months to go before the NFL season starts.

Maxson's well of biased animus toward Kaepernick is apparently bottomless. In a June 2017 post, Maxson attacked the "left-stream sports media" (whatever that is) for noting that the Seattle Seahawks didn't pick up Kaepernick, screeching that "Seattle is already loaded with hyper-active leftists and it appeared that by corralling the flag/cop-hating Kaepernick the Seahawks would create the greatest assortment of far Left athlete-activists ever."

When Kaepernick appeared in a Nike ad, last year, Maxson unsubtly headlined his post on the subject "Nike -- From ‘Just Do It’ to ‘F*** the Police’," despite the fact that he never quotes anyone from Nike -- or Kaepernick, for that matter -- using that term (apparently, Maxson was listening to a lot of gangsta rap when he wrote his post). Maxson sneered that Nike is "headquartered in the progressive cocoon of metropolitan Portland" and sneered further of Kaepernick: "Born of an African-American mother and raised by a white family, Kaepernick has been oppressed by multi-million dollar contracts while compiling a losing record as a starting NFL quarterback. Now he'll be further oppressed by millions more from the Nike contract. How generous of Nike to rescue Kaepernick from the unemployment lines too."

Indeed, the MRC seems to be paying Maxson by the amount of Kaepernick outrage he (or she, since nobody seems to know for sure) could work up. Below is a selection of Maxson's biggest Kaepernick-related freakouts in 2018.

Colin Kaepernick is fast approaching super hero status because objectivity-challenged media will have you believe he can make a lot of problems go away . Bleacher Report claims the Oakland Raiders can stay out of hot water with the NFL by signing Kaepernick. USA Today claims Kaepernick is the man who can make the NFL's new awareness campaign succeed. And the NFL players' union would have you believe this "Super Saint" is a Community MVP.

-- Jan. 25

To The Root's Senior Editor Stephen Crockett Jr., the notorious ex-football player Colin Kaepernick is "our king" and a man who walks it, talks it. "His majesty" Kaepernick is also the embodiment of slaves who jumped off slave ships to their death, and he's the man who now shows up at depositions of the NFL owners he accuses of colluding to keep him out of the league wearing a Kunta Kinte t-shirt.

In other words, Crockett is assuring us that Kaepernick won't be around again to disgrace the national anthem during the 2018 football season. Or any other NFL season. Ever.

[...]

Let the kneelers sue to their hearts' content, but if they never get another chance to disgrace the nation again, so be it.

-- March 21

Kaepernick is beginning his second offseason free agency period as an unwanted pariah who has inflicted so much damage on the NFL that none of the owners will consider signing him.

 [...]

This media cheerleading for Kap also went on for much of 2017 and will likely to continue for some time yet. Pitching Kaepernick has become part of the job for many in sports media. When will they get a clue that the defiant one has burned too many bridges and is not coming back to the NFL?

-- April 4

Kaepernick's witch hunt against the NFL owners, general managers, coaches and, yes, even Commissioner Roger Goodell's wife, could last into next year. Giving his whiny, vulgar media lackeys plenty of air and cyber space to keep their unproven theories of blackballing and collusion alive indefinitely.

-- April 12

For backtracking on a previous promise to discontinue kneeling during the national anthem, Colin Kaepernick may have lost his chance to try out for the Seattle Seahawks. This reality could not persuade USA Today's Dan Wolken that the notorious social justice warrior who went back on his word is anything other than a righteous man of impeccable character and the face of athlete activism. And a man for whom the protest movement he created is bigger than any back-up quarterbacking position that comes with strings attached.

[...]

Let's cut to the chase. Kaepernick is a loose cannon SJW who incredibly damaged the NFL's brand and Its bottom line. Any team thinking about signing him would be a glutton for punishment.

-- April 12

Amnesty International is an organization that advocates for abortion, gun control, same-sex rights and opposes Israel. Kaepernick is perfect for AI, but not for the NFL, which has already suffered substantial losses in business and public approval, thanks to the mess Kaepernick started.

-- April 29

History will likely regard Colin Kaepernick favorably. If the historians are left-leaning media like Ben Strauss and others who support radical athlete protests. In a Politico post titled "The Arc of History Bends a Knee Toward Colin Kaepernick" Strauss forecasts the ostracized former quarterback emerging "as an icon of social justice."

That's how Kaepernick is already regarded by those on the Left who care not a wit about his disrespect for the flag, anthem and veterans, his contempt for "slave patrol" police officers and his love for Castro. It's a matter of the Left idolizing the Left[.]

-- May 28

Many members of the sports media, both black and white, have anointed Kaepernick as a legendary civil rights leader in the mold of Muhammad Ali. Liberal organizations have lavished awards on him. As month after month ticks by with no new football contract, Kaepernick has resorted to suing the NFL for collusion and issuing negative tweets bashing America and public safety officers. He's hoping to make more money in court than he could make on a football field, and he's prompted many long-time fans to turn their backs on the NFL and its social justice warriors.

-- June 26

Saturday marked the 500th day of Colin Kaepernick's absence from the NFL. His close personal friend Shaun King (appearing in photo) called the refusal of teams to sign him the biggest injustice to an athlete in his lifetime. King, all of 38 years young, formerly wrote about social justice for the New York Daily News, but is now focusing on civil and human rights, racial justice, mass incarceration and law enforcement misconduct on The Intercept blog. In short, he's a shill for Kaepernick.

[...]

NFL owners think the opposite. Kaepernick may have done more damage to their enterprise than any other single person in the history of the league.

-- July 16

As NFL teams are gathering for preseason camp, Associated Press sports writer Paul Newberry suggests the league's social justice warriors play a huge Trump card if free agents Colin Kaepernick (center in photograph) and Eric Reid ... aren't signed soon. Both former San Francisco 49ers disrespected veterans and the national anthem by kneeling during the final year of their contracts, incurring the wrath of fans and the good sense of owners not to hire them.

-- July 29

Social justice warriors and their media pals will not let us forget that Colin Kaepernick is entitled to an NFL roster spot. Now the controversy over the polarizing figure has spilled over into video gaming. Kapernick, we learn, also has a right to be mentioned in video football game soundtracks. His apologists are incensed that the soon-to-be-released EA Madden 19 video game deleted song lyrics mentioning Kaepernick, leading to calls for boycotts of the game and cancellation of pre-orders.
Without a shred of evidence, two writers are claiming this is "censorship."

[...]

Further sucking up to the angry SJWs, EA is going to attach a patch to the game putting Kaepernick's name back into the song.

-- Aug. 3

And for the trillionth time, African-American players are not protesting the national anthem itself, [USA Today writer Brent] Schrotenboer rails. They're not disrespecting the military or the police (even though the man who started unrest in the NFL, Colin Kaepernick, has frequently attacked America and police).

-- Aug. 19

Low-hanging fruit first: Kaepernick is no longer an "athlete" and hasn't been one for the last two years. Going to the gym does not make one a professional athlete. What's so dignified about an anti-American renegade who talked, kneeled and tweeted his way right out of the National Football League?

Despite personally destroying the pro football experience for millions of Americans, despite hating on the country that made him a mega-millionaire as a San Francisco quarterback/hater of police, veterans, stars, stripes and the anthem, at least Nike is paying him for his incalculable divisiveness.

As the 50th anniversary of the protest-marred 1968 Olympic Games nears, the New York Daily News' Carron J. Phillips and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are glorifying Colin Kaepernick, as well as the two disgraced sprinters who staged a black power salute during the national anthem in Mexico City. The International Olympic Committee stripped Tommie Smith and John Carlos of their medals and expelled them from the Olympic Village. A 1968 headline in the Evening News declared, "Games are Rocked by Black Power." Media reporting has shifted 180 degrees since then, as many reporters sympathize with radical social justice warriors.

 [...]

Today national anthem protests, kneeling and black power salutes, are a mere footnote in reporting on NFL games. There are no longer headlines about disrespectful behavior "rocking" the spectacle of sport.

-- Oct. 7

Building off a Monday rant by ESPN's First Take co-host Max Kellerman, New York Daily News writer Chuck Modiano demanded on Thursday the New York Giants sign you know who: cop-hater Colin Kaepernick. Since NFL free agency began in spring 2017, one liberal media type after another demanded teams sign the Castro-loving, America-bashing, former anthem kneeler even though Kaepernick and his copycat protesters have damaged the NFL's ratings.

-- Oct. 11

This season, sportscasters and writers are waging an all-out blitz on NFL teams to sign the renegade free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The dismissal of Denver's backup quarterback and the poor play of quarterbacks in Jacksonville and New York have heightened media demands for their man Kap. For NFL beat reporters and talk show hosts, calling for Kaepernick's return to pro football has practically been a routine part of their work for the past two seasons.

-- Oct. 25

From the "if-you-won't-take-my-Colin-Kaepernick-advice-then-I'll-just-yell-a-lot-louder" files: With the NFL season at the midway mark, sports webs are staging yet another collective Colin Kaepernick rallying cry. The New York Daily News, TMZ and Deadspin are throwing hissy fits because unheralded quarterbacks are being thrust into starting roles, instead of the free agent quarterback who's passing for hundreds of yards a day without an interception in his personal training sessions.

-- Nov. 1

NBC Sports' pro football writer Mike Florio is strongly urging the NFL to admit defeat and settle out of court with the cop-hating Colin Kaepernick. His commenters overwhelmingly disagree with that suggestion, and why wouldn't they? The NFL would be paying millions of dollars to someone who, as yet, has not proven the league's owners colluded to keep him out of the league.

-- Nov. 29

Mid-term elections weren't the only American elections making news in November. Since Thursday, NFL fans have had the opportunity to cast votes for their favorite players to appear in the Pro Bowl game in Orlando Jan. 27, 2019. A Twitter campaign by "Resist Programming" is encouraging fans to vote -- gulp! -- for inactive free agent and social justice warrior Colin Kaepernick (center in photo, kneeling with former teammates) as an NFL all-star!

[...]

In five NFL seasons, Kaepernick won 28 games and lost 30 as a starter. He never em>earned a spot in a Pro Bowl game. The only way his name can be mentioned in connection with the game featuring the best players in the NFL is through this social media stunt by his supporters.

-- Dec. 1

Healthy quarterbacks in the nation's capital are dropping like flies, and Washington Redskins head coach Jay Gruden told reporters Monday the team actually discussed Colin Kaepernick. But after the team passed (again) on the renegade free agent and signed "Journeyman" Josh Johnson (see photo), ESPN First Take panelists discussed why the radical kneeler missed out on another potential job in the NFL.

[...]

If this is all true, Smith says, then the Redskins' signing of Johnson, not Kaepernick, makes more sense. If Kaepernick returns to the NFL and resumes his disrespectful protests, it could revitalize the NFL's public relations nightmare and cost the owners money.

-- Dec. 6

"Sports fans made it clear in 2018 that they crave stories that go beyond everyday scores and highlights," writes The Sporting News in its recap of the year. Did sports fans really have a choice though? That's assuming an awful lot because woke sports writers and broadcasters are shoving social activism in the fans' faces, glorifying malcontents, obsessing on partisan politics and pushing radical progressive agendas on their audience.

[...]

Outside of a handful of MVPs and Super Bowl champs, [writer David] Steele wrote — incredulously — "Kaepernick’s name will live longer than that of any quarterback of his era." Hear that, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning? Believe that, anyone?

The quarterback in exile is Steele's "face of athlete activism," and that’s largely because loud voices on both sides of the protest issue still invoke his name. Steele identified President Trump, the Republican Party, the NFL and its owners as those trying to squash Kaepernick's protest, which now continues through social media, his SJW surrogates and awestruck media lackeys.

-- Dec. 27

This year basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has become a presence off the court as a social justice writer and strident opponent of conservatives. He's a contributing editor for the Hollywood Reporter, and in The Guardian Thursday, he selected Serena Williams, gymnast Maggie Nichols and Colin Kaepernick as his athletes of the year because their commitment to sport and society left us better off.

There's just one problem with his selections: one of those three, Kaepernick, is no longer an athlete, and his conduct is deplorable.

[...]

Abdul-Jabbar absolutely "misreads the room" by overlooking massive opposition to Kaepernick. Then he alleges Kaepernick is owed the entitlement of a rich NFL contract. The notorious former San Francisco 49er "risked everything to quietly protest racial injustice while the NFL is unwilling to risk anything to do what’s right." Since voluntarily leaving the 49ers, Kaepernick has sniped away at America and public safety officers through derogatory social media messages. His conduct is not becoming of current or former pro athletes.

-- Dec. 29

A month later, though, Maxson was outraged by another athlete's past coming back to haunt him, in the form of homophobic tweets by a teen Kyler Murray resurfacing in the wake of his Heisman Trophy win. Maxson ranted that Murray was convicted of a "thought crime" by the media -- then attacked the USA Today reporter who first reported on the old tweets as "obsessed with the LGBT agenda to search and destroy adult athletes for youthful remarks."

It's OK to destroy Kaepernick, apparently -- after all, that's what the MRC is paying Maxson to do.