Colin Kaepernick's badassery seemingly has no bounds. The 49ers quarterback showed up to his first start of the season today wearing a Muhammad Ali shirt, symbolizing a solidarity with the late boxer who also used his prominent position as a platform to protest social injustice.In case you've been burying yourself in a sand pit in the Cayman Islands for the past few months to hide yourself from this upcoming election (and kudos to you, friend), Kaepernick has been taking an undue amount of crap for his silent protest against police brutality and racial discrimination—a cause that, reasonably, everyone should get behind. He decided to kneel during the (NFL's paid) national anthem, an act that is somehow perceived by jingoistic patriots as an abomination.Kaepernick's actions feel pretty minimal compared to Ali's—the now-widely lionized Ali went to great lengths to protest the Vietnam draft, which lost him his boxing license and even got him a five-year jail sentence, which he did not serve after an appeal. But there's an understandable comparison to be drawn. Both men received a tremendous amount of heat—in Kaepernick's case, even from liberal-leaning Supreme Court justice—for their protest. Kaepernick is smart to wear this Ali shirt. He too knows that history will absolve him.Colin Kaepernick arrives to the stadium wearing a Muhammad Ali shirt. pic.twitter.com/ep1bZKTiOa
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) October 16, 2016