New Doc ‘Kaepernick & America:’ It’s About More Than Just The Kneeling

Colin Kaepernick is in the news again this week for something off the field. The former San Francisco 48ers quarterback became a father for the first time, an exciting milestone in anyone’s life. Yet just like anything that has to do with Kaepernick, whose decision not to stand for the pregame national anthem was met with controversy in 2016, already the divisive comments have started online—for an event as unambiguously joyous as the birth of a child.

The reactions to Kaepernick, whether he’s publishing a children’s book, being passed over by NFL team after NFL team, or even, yes, becoming a dad, are always forceful. And as a new documentary out Friday observes, these reactions say more about America and where we stand than they do about the man himself.

Kapernick & America, a new documentary directed by Tommy Walker and Ross Hockrow being released across streaming platforms including AppleTV+ and AmazonAMZN
, makes a convincing case that the reaction to Kaep’s protest tells the story of America—and it hasn’t changed as much as people might think or hope.

“The title says Kaepernick, yes. Obviously it’s the story of his kneeling, but the end, the America part of it, is really what this film is truly about—America’s reflection on Kaepernick and America’s reflection on all the issues that we lay out,” says Hockrow.

“It’s not a biography of Colin Kaepernick. It’s using the Colin Kaepernick story to teach us about who we are. How do we teach people about how and what America thinks? Well, that’s pretty broad, you could start in a million places, and I think Kaepernick is a great one.”

The filmmakers didn’t speak to Kaepernick himself, though not for lack of trying. But since the film focuses as much on society’s reaction to him as his actions, the absence doesn’t hurt. The movie chronicles the QB’s early years, including a deep dive into transracial adoption, and how he ended up with the 49ers.

Walker and Hockrow interview sports figures, of course, including Steve Wyche, the NFL Network reporter who broke the story of Kaepernick’s anthem protest, who offers some of the most insightful commentary on both NFL norms and societal reaction. They speak to adoption experts, pop culture figures and social justice advocates. What emerges is a portrait that goes beyond Kaep, as the directors intended.

“America spent so much time back then talking about the kneeling itself and what does it mean and what it was. There was so much noise around it just because it’s the anthem, it’s the flag, it’s this, it’s that. We didn’t spend that energy looking at the events that led to him doing that and why he felt like he needed to do this,” Hockrow says.

What led the onetime Super Bowl QB to do it? At the time, Kaepernick said he could not “stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,” including the killing of unarmed Black men by police officers. Kaepernick, who was injured during the 2015 season, educated himself on the civil rights movement and social justice and began tweeting about them, as Wyche noted in the story that broke the protest.

However, the nuance of the reason behind the protest got lost in the hotbed of an election year with two controversial candidates and the uproar over Kaepernick’s action rather than the reason behind it. People burned his jerseys. His hometown restaurant renamed a dish that had been named after him. Trolls attacked him online, and fans booed him at stadiums.

“All he did was exercise free speech and try to draw attention to an issue that absolutely needed attention. It still does,” says Walker. “He recognized his platform and decided to use it that way. There’s a lot of ways you could use that platform. Not all of them are for the greater good.”

The filmmakers note that many people are amazed, looking back, that the Kaep protest took place during the same timeline as the 2016 election. It feels like five lifetimes ago in many ways. Yet America continues to grapple with the same issues.

“George Floyd happens two years ago, and suddenly America is looking at the subject matter in a completely different manner,” Walker says. “The level of interest changes the media standpoint or public standpoint. I don’t know that our perspective changed very much. I would say that we came from the same perspective six years ago.”

The filmmakers hope that by reexamining the recent past, they will spark something new. Something that should have been done a while ago: Actually grappling with why Kaepernick began his protest. Remember, it’s more than just the kneeling.

“I hope that when you’re done watching this film, you have the conversation with the person next to you that you should have had in 2016,” Hockrow says.