Will 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick's protest of national anthem wind up mattering?

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s defiant stand was to sit during the playing of the national anthem ahead of a preseason NFL game.

Kaepernick says he’ll continue to sit out the anthem until “there’s significant change” in how people of color are treated in the United States, in particular by police.

But will his protest lead to actual change?

“It has already brought along something meaningful because we are all talking about it,” said Katheryn Russell-Brown, director of the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations at the University of Florida. “He’s doing his version of a hunger strike. He went into this knowing that he was putting his career and reputation on the line by taking a stand.”

Kaepernick told reporters Sunday that he will continue to remain seated during The Star Spangled Banner while citing the numerous police shootings that drew national attention in recent months. He was careful not to speak for his teammates or others.

“I’m not going to go try and recruit people and say, ‘Hey, come do this with me,’” Kaepernick  said. “I know the consequences that come with that. They need to make that decision for themselves.”

Oklahoma State sports media professor Edward Kian said Kaepernick’s message would have more impact if two other things occur: other players join him in sitting out the national anthem; and if Kaepernick recaptures the level of play he had four years ago when he led the 49ers to the Super Bowl.

“Individually, I don’t think it will make a difference,” Kian said. “If more athletes speak up, that would be a different story.

“Had he done this three or four years ago, when he was seen as the next big thing and doing TV commercials for Beats by Dre, it would have had more impact. He’s seemingly on the losing end of a quarterback battle with a journeyman (Blaine Gabbert) for arguably the worst team in the NFL.”

Critics fire back

Kaepernick didn’t just object to standing for the national anthem, he also said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”

One other player, undrafted Philadelphia Eagles rookie Myke Tavarres, planned to follow Kaepernick's lead and sit for the anthem prior to Thursday's game against the New York Jets.

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"Oh, I thought about it. Believe me, I definitely thought about it," Tavarres told ESPN after he nearly decided to sit through the anthem Saturday night in Indianapolis. "And usually I'm front and center on the line with the rest of the guys, and that's since pre-K all the way up. Saturday's game, I stepped back, I was in the background, and it didn't feel right to me at all, and so I will be taking a stand — or sitting down — for the fourth game."

However on Monday, Tavarres’ agent said his client would be standing during the playing of the national anthem Thursday.

None of Kaerpernick’s teammates — or any other player in the NFL — seem eager to join in, even after the quarterback addressed the Niners privately on Sunday before speaking to the media. Reactions like those of Minnesota Vikings lineman Alex Boone, a former 49er and teammate of Kaepernick’s for five years, are the major reason why.

“You see all these pictures of these veterans that have no legs, and they’re standing up in a wheelchair,” Boone said Sunday. “I had a brother that served, and he lost friends, and I know how much it means to him. It’s shameful.”

Jaime Schultz, an associate professor of kinesiology at Penn State who has studied racial issues in sports extensively, said Boone’s reaction was predictable.

“People conflate these types of protests with being anti-military,” Schultz said. “This has nothing to do with the military. This has to do with race relations and what people of color endure. He didn’t denounce our troops. The reaction is why no other player has come out and said they plan to do something similar.”

Kaepernick actually praised the military Sunday, but it is inevitable that other professional athletes with military ties would take offense to his actions.

Detroit Tigers catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia — he is known to wear red, white and blue apparel before games — took issue with Kaepernick tying the flag to oppression of minorities.

"He needs to go back to the history books and realize what that flag represents and what a lot of people have sacrificed for it,” Saltalamacchia said. “Has nothing to do with his comments, that’s for sure.

“It’s pretty disgusting.”

Another former 49ers teammate, receiver Anquan Boldin of the Detroit Lions, defended Kaepernick’s right to speak out.

"I think a lot of people get bent out of shape about it," Boldin said. "Even if you don’t agree with what someone does, you still have to respect their opinion and how they feel about something. You can agree or disagree with it, but you still have to respect it. That’s the right that we have as Americans, and that’s the great part about being an American."

Bold and risky

Kaepernick is the rare modern athlete to take such a perceived unpatriotic stance.

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The last professional athlete in a major U.S. team sport to do something similar was NBA player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, who converted to Islam after entering the league. While a member of the Denver Nuggets, he was suspended one game in March 1996 for sitting during the national anthem in protest before the league worked out a compromise as Abdul-Rauf stood and recited prayer.

But Abdul-Rauf was pilloried for his protest. So was former NFL running back Rashard Mendenhall, who was haunted by his May 2011 Twitter message where he ripped people for celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden. He wrote, and then soon deleted a tweet, that read: "What kind of person celebrates death. It's amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak.”

Champion dropped Mendenhall, who was with the Pittsburgh Steelers at the time, as a sponsor. He wound up retiring at age 26 after only six seasons, although he didn’t cite the backlash for stepping away from the game early.

“Mendenhall was pretty much shunned,” Kian said. “If Kaepernick ever made comeback with the 49ers or anybody else where he became a star again — and that’s not out of the realm of possibility — it’s almost impossible to imagine he’d get any endorsements. He pretty much changed that chance of that, but you have to respect that from a free speech standpoint.

"He hurt his career, and he knew that.”

Contributing: Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press.