Article Image

IPFS News Link • Entertainment: Sports

Colin Kaepernick: I'm not anti-American, will donate $1 million

• http://www.usatoday.com

SAN DIEGO — After hearing loud and sustained boos directed at him during the San Francisco 49ers' preseason game against the San Diego Chargers on Thursday night, Colin Kaepernick called the crowd's negative reaction a "misunderstanding."

Kaepernick, the 49ers quarterback, said the reason he refuses to stand for the national anthem has been distorted. He also said he will donate $1 million to groups that help people affected by the issues he is trying to spotlight — such as racial inequality and police brutality — with his continued protest.

"The media painted this as I'm anti-American, anti-men-and-women of the military and that's not the case at all,'' Kaepernick said after playing the first half of the 49ers' 31-21 victory over the Chargers. "I realize that men and women of the military go out and sacrifice their lives and put themselves in harm's way for my freedom of speech and my freedoms in this country and my freedom to take a seat or take a knee so I have the utmost respect for them.

"I think what I did was taken out of context and spun a different way.''