Myles Garrett: NFL owes Colin Kaepernick an apology, job

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Myles Garrett isn’t the first to say it, and he almost assuredly won’t be the last.

Unless and until a team signs Colin Kaepernick, giving him a second chance at his NFL career, players will continue to question whether the league could do more in the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I feel like they should have a bigger voice,‘’ Garrett said Thursday, via Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com. “They have so much access to resources. They should be able to speak up. I believe Kap deserves an apology. I know it’s one thing to stand behind us and support our efforts, but they should be standing beside us in what we’re doing, seeing as there are a lot of players big and small in their stardom trying to do things for their hometowns, for where they play and just for areas that they know have been affected. I feel like they should be right there beside us trying to lead the charge.”

Kaepernick has not played since 2016, parting ways with the 49ers in the 2017 offseason. The NFL has backballed him for being the first player to protest social injustice and police brutality during the national anthem.

Kaepernick has not gotten anything more than a visit to the Seahawks in 2017.

But the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, and the protests that followed, led some to believe that the league’s stance had softened toward both Kaepernick and player protests during the national anthem. As of yet, though, Kaepernick remains waiting.

Garrett is doing his part.

He paid for the funeral of Louisville restaurateur David McAtee, who was shot and killed by the Kentucky National Guard last month as law enforcement tried to disperse protesters. The Browns defensive end tried to do the same for the family of David Dorn, a retired police captain who was shot and killed by a man looting a St. Louis pawn shop, but Garrett never reached Dorn’s survivors.

“The work is not done,” Garrett said. “There are still things I am trying to do here in Cleveland and even back home in the DFW area [Dallas-Fort Worth] to improve the situations of the people I have grown up with and people who I know have been affected, and even those who I have not met and can’t reach yet.

“It’s just making it better for the young women and children, who are my age and under, who I want to see get out of situations that can turn into violence or keep this cycle perpetuated.”