“Colin Kaepernick 'screams' as Coach Kyle Shanahan denies his return request: 'The kneeling symbol has no chance of coming back.’”
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Football’s coming back for the 2024 regular season, and so is misinformation about Colin Kaepernick
It’s been seven years since quarterback Colin Kaepernick played for the former San Francisco 49ers — or any NFL team. But misinformation about the football player-turned-civil rights activist continues to spread on social media with the NFL’s regular 2024 season looming Sept. 5.
"Colin Kaepernick 'SCREAMS' as Coach Kyle Shanahan denies his return request: 'The kneeling symbol has no chance of coming back,’" an Aug. 23 Facebook post said.
The post shared an image of Shanahan at a July 29 press conference after a 49ers training camp practice in Santa Clara, California. The words "no more chances for someone who disrespects America" and "full story in comment" appeared over the image.
But the supposed "full story" that the post linked to in its comments section makes no mention of Kaepernick or Shanahan, the 49ers’ head coach.
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)
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Representatives for the 49ers and Kaepernick didn’t immediately respond to PolitiFact’s questions about the post.
But we found no evidence that Shanahan rebuffed a request from a screaming Kaepernick to rejoin the team or said that "the kneeling symbol has no chance of coming back."
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Searching for that quote turned up only a few other social media posts.
Kaepernick, who led the 49ers to the Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, has not played in the NFL since the 2016 season, when he began protesting police violence against Black Americans by sitting or kneeling during the pregame national anthem. In 2019, he and the NFL settled a grievance alleging that the league and team owners colluded to keep him out of football.
Brock Purdy is poised to start as quarterback for the 49ers in the 2024 season, backed up by Joshua Dobbs and Brandon Allen.
We rate this post False.
CORRECTION, Sept. 19: This story was updated to remove a statement wrongly attributed to Colin Kaepernick’s spokesperson.
Our Sources
Facebook post, Aug. 23, 2024
Blog post, Aug. 23, 2024
PolitiFact, No, the Denver Broncos didn’t sign Colin Kaepernick, Nov. 30, 2020
PolitiFact, No, Colin Kaepernick wasn’t fired from his ‘new high school coaching job,’ May 17, 2024
49ers, Position-By-Position Breakdown of the 49ers 2024 Initial 53-Man Roster, Aug. 27, 2024
Getty Images, Kyle Shanahan photo, July 29, 2024
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Football’s coming back for the 2024 regular season, and so is misinformation about Colin Kaepernick
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