Jaw
It's OVER 5,000!
geez,I thought he did that off of the top of his head, it was planned ?
Do you think he hit Facebook Live on his smartphone and started "freestyling" and the BET awards just made a snap decision to broadcast it? Do you think he frequently hangs out in a parking garage with his entourage in a perimeter around him, waiting to hear what he has to say? Do you think he stepped in front of the camera and was torn between his competing desires to speak up about either Trump, or the impact of environmental estrogen from the BPA in disposable plastic bottles on the modern American male? If the answer to any of those is no, then yes, it was planned.
As far as the NFL or as they are know to their friends "The Shield" ----- they too have on their plate that they knowingly denied any problems with concussions and CTE.
They suspended a player last year for no reason
and suspended a coach for a season where a few games would have sufficed.
The military pays them for the National Anthem and the festivities celebrating empirical nationalism attached a clumsily written song that no one can sing.
Not to mention they present a game with no flow due to unnecesary replay after replay after replay then a commercial then a time out ...
rinse repeat
Their brand has been incrementally sinking long before Kaepernick
The controversy over the anthem has had a negative impact on the NFL. That is incontrovertible.