On a day dedicated to the working man, Nike damaged its reputation by partnering with the most prominent unemployed man in sports.
In order to celebrate the 30th year of their “Just Do It” campaign, Nike has made former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick the face of it.
BREAKING: Nike had been paying Colin Kaepernick all along, waiting for the right moment. That moment is now, as he becomes the face of the company’s 30th anniversary of the “Just Do It” campaign. pic.twitter.com/uccpDStbq5
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) September 3, 2018
Rovell’s tweet has been liked 340,000 times, with another tweet from Kaepernick’s own account liked more than 550,000 times.
Now, where do we begin?
For starters, sacrificing everything for something one believes in is not necessarily wise if your cause is bad. Kamikaze pilots in World War II did this, so do suicide bombers in the 21st century. Kaepernick, of course, is well-intentioned. But just because he sacrificed something doesn’t mean he was doing it for a good cause. Kaepernick has been seen wearing socks that depict police officers as pigs. He wore a t-shirt featuring Fidel Castro, the late communist dictator of Cuba who was no fan of human rights. Kaepernick also donated $25,000 to a group honoring cop-killer Assata Shakur. Nike apparently finds this noble and has been paying money to be associated with Kaepernick.
That said, did Kaepernick really sacrifice “everything,” as the advertising says?
He has sacrificed virtually nothing in his political activism. Even if he never started the vapid kneeling during the national anthem gesture, he would have been cut by the San Francisco 49ers following the 2016 NFL season anyways.
He went 1-10 as a starter in 2016, benched twice in favor of Blaine Gabbert. Kaepernick posted a 49.3 QBR (ranked 23rd of 30 qualified NFL quarterbacks) and fumbled nine times (which means he was on pace to fumble 13 times had he started all 16 games). He was about to enter his fourth season in a seven-year $126 million contract; there was no way San Francisco was going to continue paying him all that money to continue losing football games. Instead, he opted out of his deal.
Had Kaepernick not kneeled, maybe he could have been a backup someplace else for less money once the 49ers cut him. But why would he need to be? He had already earned $43.5 million as an NFL player, plus however much he earned from endorsements. In other words, Kaepernick was set for life financially regardless of whether or not he played another down in the NFL ever again.
As for Nike, it’s not a great idea for a multibillion corporation, who sells sporting goods, to take a hard line political stance on anything. Splitting the market to support a political cause is not and never really has been a good move, as far as revenue goes.
As NBA legend Michael Jordan is rumored to have once said, “Republicans buy shoes, too.” Remember, Air Jordans are made by Nike, and Jordan himself didn’t think it was a good idea to go political because he did not want to hurt Nike’s bottom line. About 53 percent of Americans surveyed by the Washington Post in February said they feel it is never OK for NFL players to kneel during the national anthem, so Nike legitimately is siding against more than half of the country here.
So why is Nike doing it? It’s clearly for the attention. The news blew up as soon as it was released because Kaepernick is a polarizing figure who gets a lot of press. In all likelihood, it will not be a good move long-term for Nike to pick sides in the culture war, but they are getting quite a bit of free advertising in the short run.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a freelancer writer who has been published with USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Federalist, and a number of other media outlets.
