Colin Kaepernick’s infamous protests during the 2016 NFL season are still talked about to this day, but Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher made it clear something like that wouldn’t have flown if he was in the same locker room.
The legendary Chicago Bears linebacker talked about Kaepernick’s knee-taking and locker room dynamics in general during an appearance on OutKick’s “The Craig Carton Show.”
Carton asked Urlacher if politics were a big thing in the Bears’ locker room while he was playing in the league.
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Chicago Bears legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher said that Colin Kaepernick’s infamous anthem protests would not have gone over well in his locker room. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images and Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
“No,” Urlacher said. “Politics — I didn’t even know what I was (politically) back then. I didn’t care, man… You can’t have the racial divide in the locker room. It’s just not going to work. If you do, your team is going to be s—.”
Urlacher pointed out that everyone in the room is coming together to work toward the same goal, but Kaepernick’s anthem protests? That wouldn’t have flown with him.
Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid of the San Francisco 49ers kneel in protest during the national anthem before an NFL game against the Los Angeles Rams at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sept. 12, 2016. (Getty Images)
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“The thing with him taking a knee would have been really, really f—king hard for me to put up with in the locker room,” he said. “That would have been something that would have probably been a line in the sand for me when it comes to stuff like that.”
He and Carton both agreed that in the locker room, all that matters is that you’re there, not how you got there; an idea that Carton said should probably be applied to society at large.
Urlacher agreed.
Brian Urlacher is honored with a Ring of Excellence ceremony for his recent induction into the Hall of Fame at Soldier Field. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)
“We have to get along (in the locker room),” he said. “There are going to be spats, don’t get me wrong. There are some times where you get into it with your teammates, but then literally 30 minutes later it’s squashed. You’re over it. You’re moving on.”
But again, that whole thing with Kaepernick was different. In fact, it turned him off from the league for years.
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“I’d retired, so I was watching all this happen on TV, and we quit watching. There were probably two, two and a half, three years where we didn’t watch football. I was like, as long as this s—‘s taking place, I’m not watching. My wife was fully on board. She’s all about that as well. So we just didn’t watch pro football for a few years there because of all the s— that was going on.”