On Friday, Twitter was abuzz with San Francisco 49ers fans upset about pictures of the team’s starting quarterback Colin Kaepernick out in public wearing a Miami Dolphins hat. Many fans felt that even though Miami and San Francisco aren’t big NFL rivals, the image of their quarterback wearing any other team’s hat was not something they approved of.
Kaepernick defended his actions on his instagram/twitter accounts posting the following:
“This the hat y’all mad at? I’m goin wear what I want regardless of what you think, all you need to worry about is the fact that I grind for my teammates and the 49ers! I plan on doin this until they won’t let me in the building! #ridiculous#y’allmustbebored.”
The comments did nothing to stop the controversy, in fact it basically had the effect of pouring gasoline on the flames. And of course this is understandable, no true NFL fan wants to see a player on his or her favorite team supporting someone else, even if it isn’t a big rival. At the end of the day all 32 teams are seeking one prize, the Superbowl, and the 49ers gain is 31 teams’ loss.
NFL fans want to believe that the players on their favorite team care as much about that team as they do. 49ers fans want to believe that Kaepernick is 100% committed to their club, with no support for any other NFL club. That may be unfair, and ignore the reality that their are plenty of players who are friends with members of other teams, but it is what fans want.
That said, this whole incident will be quickly forgotten as soon as Kaepernick leads the 49ers to some wins on the football field, but since that we are still at least two months away before he can even hope to make that happen, Kaepernick will have to learn from this experience and will need to be more judicious with his fashion choices going forward.
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