Colin Sheridan: Kaepernick proves it pays to remain silent 

The NFL, which had protected and forgiven all manner of criminals, including countless domestic abusers, consciously cancelled Kaepernick for deigning to protest racial and social injustice.

FROZEN OUT: Colin Kaepernick speaks at a tech conference in San Francisco last year. Pic: Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch

It's 12 years since San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick led his team on one final drive up the field in an attempt to win the Super Bowl. Trailing the Baltimore Ravens 34-29, Kaepernick did what he’d done all season, scrambling and passing his way up to first and goal, just a few yards short of the Ravens endzone. With a couple of minutes still on the clock, a touchdown for San Francisco was no guarantee of victory, but had he found his receivers on any of his three attempts, the odds were in Kaepernick's favour to become only the second Black quarterback (after Washington's Doug Williams in 1988) to lead a franchise to a Super Bowl victory. 

Thanks to poor execution and arguably poorer play calling, none of his passes landed. The 49ers settled for a field goal and ultimately came up short. Kaepernick's tumultuous final drive was indicative of a remarkable season for a guy who began the year as Alex Smith’s understudy, a player most fans had never heard of. By the end of it, he was the talk of the league.