No one was really with Kaepernick prior to Trump's remarks because a large part of America simply refuses to see their country as anything but the pinnacle of freedom. Our society has been poisoned and practiced to be upstanding "patriots" by placing warriors on pedestals and in large part by a federal effort to instill patriotism into citizens at early ages. For example the "Pledge of Allegiance" that everyone recites before morning bell or before congressional hearings was designed to instill nationalism and unity in the United States. The words "under God" were later added to it in 1954 to combat the growing "unethical communism" that chose to not have any endorsed religion (largely because the USSR was largely atheistic at the time and was a part of a growing effort to counter literally anything associated with communism). Combine this with right wing propaganda that anything liberal is in direct contrast to whatever is considered "American values" at the time means that a large portion of this country simply writes off racism, sexism, homophobia, and more as "liberal whining." On top of this, Kaepernick ended up becoming a free agent in 2016 and thus was froze out of most teams for his political views (one could argue that his skills were bad and thats why he wasn't signed but the man took a previously trash team since Steve Young played to the Super Bowl.). This would probably scare a ton of players, who often don't have the skills to transition to something else or lack the "star" status that Kaepernick had to remain endorsed without a team.
If Trump had said nothing about the protesting of the national anthem, theres a very large possibility that Kaepernick would have faded from existence and that the NFL would have continued to just go on, uninterrupted. As it stands however, the situation is one where the President of the United States tried to influence 1) a corporation and organization that is for all intents and purposes
immune to governmental pressure, and more tragic 2) tried to suppress First Amendment rights. It's very important to note that our society has put immense power into the hands of the presidential office. In no scenario does the President have any right to tell any specific individual what to do, nor do they have the right to influence private businesses and institutions (
18 U.S. Code § 227).
This is illegal, any influencing of private institutions is a major breach of office and abuse of power. Unfortunately, the President achieves a massive amount of glorification from people that forget that at best the office is considered an employee of the people,
not a king. As it stands, literally anything that Trump says now is held against him due to the nature of his office and this resulted in solidarity from people who can't stand Trump, actually believe that institutionalized racism is a real threat and needs to be addressed, or are simply supporting the rights of NFL players to their free speech.
Unfortunately, as the protests have grown in number the point of the protest has largely been ignored. I would argue this is the fault conservative media and the President, in an attempt at shushing the actual protest by painting the protesters as something un-American. The only reason that tactic works, is because America is full of blind patriotism and nationalism, two concepts that are inherently counter intuitive to what America was founded on. Yes, love your country, it is important to a culture for the citizens to love your country, but not to the extent that one refuses to see your country as anything less than perfect. Unfortunately many people believe that we can do no wrong, and turn a blind eye to our failures and mistakes. Many people would think this has to do with concepts such as "white guilt" and whatnot. I was once one of those people. However one can admit that our country has faults while at the same time praising it as a paragon for freedom. For example, a large part of why Trump got elected was because he put "America first." In speeches, even today, he would refuse to condone anything the United States had done, instead speaking about how great the country was. This was in large part why Reagan was considered such a good president, despite a large portion of his policies failing to cement themselves as foundations of the country (supply side economics that eventually lead into today's oligarchy, where the right is largely funded by Super-PACS or the Koch brothers and this gives lobbyist undue influence on politics, the Iran-Contra affair that directly funded half of the wars in the Middles East to this day, his dissolution of labor unions that have advanced the pay gap between middle and upper class, etc etc). Yet as statistically the most corrupt presidency to this date, Reagan is considered the hero of the conservative party
because he refused to condone the United States. No one
wants to hear about any problems in your country. Even if your daughter has a massive cocaine problem people will refuse to believe it, living in some bubble that they have created for themselves where everything is perfect. Trump does the same tactics, condoning Obama for speaking ill of the US at global speeches at the UN, constantly giving praise on how America is the greatest thing to ever exist. This has led to a large portion of the populace believing that race relations are fine and that "black people are equal now and should just shut up."
That is why people are only now protesting. Trump had finally implied what a portion of Americans had been thinking for decades, that black people always complain about racism that doesn't exist, that they just want free shit, etc etc. For many people, it was a wake up call. For me certainly it was a wake up call. Prior to seeing my home state overrun by Neo-nazis I wouldn't have given a shit about any protests that were happening. Sometimes its just all about the context and situation to spark different lines of thinking and solidarity. Seeing a President (who had already been known to be racist and judgemental) speak ill of a peaceful protest in some misrepresented ideal that they hate America and hate patriotism brought many people to see the light that this sort of institutionalized discrimination and racism permeates our entire country. Before I would have said racism is a fable, only propogated by old white men and shunned by a large portion of the populace. Now I see it as an issue that sooo many people experience daily. Even worse, if you don't remain outspoken against such heinous lines of thinking, then you are not really any better than those who actively participate in racism. I'd argue you're even worse, as there are always going to be "bad people" but if you see those bad people do bad things and do nothing to stop them or anything in the contrary then you are complicit in those actions by virtue. It should be every citizens dream,
especially in the United States, to stop that sort of behavior and progress into the wonderful society that everyone preaches about. To truly be the melting pot of the world, where every culture is welcome and the spread of ideas happens. Not a secluded society that only the elite can get in and fuck the rest. Too many people in this country have the mentality of "got mine fuck the rest" and I just find it incredibly sad and heartbreaking.