In 2016, National Football League (NFL) quarterback Colin Kaepernick began a high-profile protest of police brutality and mass incarceration that prompted outrage among far-right communities and media. Given the prominence and significance of Kaepernick’s protest, it is vital to study the far-right social media backlash that propelled boycotts of the NFL, drove news cycles, and positioned celebrity athletes as too privileged to protest oppression. My research is grounded in celebrity studies theory, sport media scholarship, and critical race theory. In this article, I establish the history of systemic racism in the United States that lingers in the microcosm of the NFL and sports media’s racist treatment of players; I then explore scholarship on celebrity, race, and power that provide a foundation for analyzing Kaepernick’s protest and the effort to desecrate his celebrity. Analysis of online far-right communities shows that Kaepernick functions as a target for collective far-right outrage, a focal point around which commenters could explore and define their common values, grievances, and identities.
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