Colin Kaepernick protest fallout showed 'really how a lot of the White people see us,' NFL legend says

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Colin Kaepernick created a firestorm in the NFL when he decided to take a knee during the national anthem in an effort to protest against racial injustice in the U.S.

Former San Francisco 49ers star Terrell Owens said the decision to kneel during "The Star-Spangled Banner" was not going to reverberate across the NFL and extend outside the football boundaries as well as create a fervent backlash.

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Eli Harold, #58, Colin Kaepernick, #7 and Eric Reid, #35 of the San Francisco 49ers, kneel on the sideline during the anthem prior to the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium on Oct. 2, 2016 in Santa Clara, California. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

"I never would have thought it would have created the firestorm that it has," Owens said during a recent interview on "The Jason Lee Show." "Never thought this guy would never step back on the football field because of that. 

"But it really shed light on really kinda how this would works and really how a lot of the White people see us. For so many years, we’ve tried to voice that, I mean, 400-plus something years we’ve been telling you these are some of the things that have been going on and it took … like I said, who would’ve thought that it took a knee to bring all of this back to life."

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Former NFL player Terrell Owens looks on from the sideline at Paycor Stadium on Sept. 25, 2023 in Cincinnati. (Cooper Neill/Getty Images)

When Lee mentioned Jay-Z partnering with the NFL to help the league’s entertainment sphere in the wake of Kaepernick’s protest, Owens said he did not like that happening.

"I don’t like that because you’re addressing it at that time … where’s the momentum of what is going on? Where’s the continuation of really trying to rectify or bring some type of solution to it?" Owens said. "Not just for the moment. It’s continued work. It’s not just for that moment and you address it and it’s swept under the rug after a few weeks or a couple of months and then like you said, it’s business back to usual. It has to be continued effort to rectify some of these things."

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San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, #7, points in the direction of a Chargers defender during the NFL preseason game between the San Francisco 49ers and the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. (Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since the 2016 season, though he has held workouts and been in videos keeping his skills sharp and telling his fans that he is staying ready. He reportedly told the New York Jets he would be willing to play for the team after Aaron Rodgers suffered an Achilles injury.