Kaepernick is likely not in starting QB shape right now, which is most likely why some teams are holding off, not the pansy-assed conservative racist motherfuckers who'd drop a load in their pants if their team signed him up.
Reasoned debate isn't a form of protest. In fact, the LACK of reasoned debate -- or any serious dialog at all, for that matter -- is the whole reason why protesting is a thing.
The supposed purpose of a protest is to change minds. Debate has a much better chance of accomplishing this than a bunch of people walking down the street shouting slogans, or burning cars, or busting windows, or physically attacking others, etc., etc.
The purpose of protest is to change BEHAVIOR. Reasoned debate is, in theory, a more effective path to doing this because you can convince a person to change their behavior by convincing them that their behavior is harmful. Protest is a different tool, as it is a form of disruptive behavior that directly and explicitly punishes those who either actively engage in undesired behaviors or who indirectly allow and sanction those behaviors. The theory of protest is that society judges that the policy or behavior in question is not important enough to suffer continued disruption by protestors and the policy is changed -- or the behavior discouraged by some administrative gesture -- so as to placate the protestors and mitigate the disruption caused. This is why many governments and organizations plagued by protests and strikes often have a "wait and see" approach to see if the protests really have stamina. A protest movement is only as effective as its members can sustain their collective outrage, but if there's signs that the whole mess will blow over without them having to change anything, the leadership will just wait it out.
Physically attacking others isn't meant to change minds either. Louis XIV wrote "The Last Argument of Kings" on the side of his cannons as a deadpan joke about the failure of reason to secure certain changes in behavior and that, ultimately, disputes between kings could only be settled on the battlefield. It wasn't that he actually believed that blasting someone to pieces with cannon fire would change anyone's mind... on the other hand, people who have been blasted to pieces by cannon fire seldom produce valid counter-arguments.
Respectfully disagree: the best and most effective form of protest is armed rebellion coupled with strategic dominance and overwhelming firepower. Because armed rebellions tend to cause massive damage and collateral damage whether they succeed or not, democracy was invented as a mechanism that would allow people to divest power from a non-responsive government WITHOUT having to violently overthrow it. Where that mechanism fails to function properly, or where a certain segment of the population is unable to use the normal means of democratic process to bring about change in their government, more subversive means -- including but not limited to protest, boycotts and other forms of civil disobedience -- become necessary. When civil disobedience is insufficient, then uncivil disobedience -- in the form of violence and insurrection -- are the next logical step.
He probably is but the NFL teams have the right not to hire someone who they deem to be disruptive and instead hire someone else.
