Colin Kaepernick Claims NFL Is Still ‘Actively Blackballing’ Him 10 Years After Kneeling Protest

• Colin Kaepernick claimed in a new interview that the NFL is still ‘actively blackballing’ him, 10 years since his #TakeAKnee movement in 2016
• The former quarterback said he has not watched an NFL game since he was exiled from the league
• Kaepernick is releasing a memoir called “The Perilous Fight” on Sept. 15

Colin Kaepernick is reflecting on the 10 years since he was exiled from the NFL.

In a new interview with NBC News on Tuesday, Sept. 1, Kaepernick, 38, claimed the league is still “actively blackballing” him a decade after he first knelt during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial injustice.

When asked if he still follows the NFL, the former quarterback, who is preparing for the Sept. 15 release of his memoir “The Perilous Fight,” said that he hasn’t watched a game since 2016.

“I’m not gonna support an organization that one, is actively blackballing me, but two, has targeted my brothers who have been protesting as part of this as well,” Kaepernick told NBC, adding, “I watch college football.”

PEOPLE has reached out to the NFL for comment.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has denied Kaepernick’s claims he was “blackballed” by the league, saying in 2017: “Each team makes individual decisions about how they can improve their team. And if they see an opportunity to improve their team I think they do it. They evaluate players, they evaluate systems and coaches, and they all make those individual decisions to try to improve their team.”

Three years later, in an interview with former NFL player Emmanuel Acho, Goodell said he wishes “we had listened earlier” to Kaepernick, “to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to.”

The former NFL star shares a 4-year-old daughter — whose name is not known — with his wife, Nessa Diab. Diab revealed last August that she’s been married to Kaepernick “for years.”

Kaepernick told NBC News that fatherhood “increases the responsibility and urgency of the work we’re doing.”

Kaepernick said in his upcoming memoir that the inspiration to speak out for the first time in years about the fallout of his career comes from wanting to send a message to his community, NBC News reported.

“I don’t want my community to watch me and have the takeaway be that if you fight for Black folks, it’s over for you,” Kaepernick told the outlet.

Kaepernick’s #TakeAKnee movement began in 2016 when he refused to stand during the national anthem before NFL games in protest of police brutality and racial injustice in the United States. Many players in the league, and across other sports, joined the protest by kneeling or participating with their own variations.

At the time, Kaepernick told NFL Network he was “not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color.”

“To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way,” he continued. “There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

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In May 2018, NFL owners voted unanimously to approve a policy that would fine teams for players who kneel during the national anthem. But the implementation of that decision was later postponed, according to Rolling Stone, after the Miami Dolphins threatened to fine players for four games if they took a knee.

A number of football fans misinterpreted Kaepernick’s message as disrespectful to the American flag and military, but according to NPR, it was a retired Army Green Beret who suggested that Kaepernick kneel instead of sit during his protest.

Read the original article on People