Friday, ESPN “First Take” co-host Stephen A. Smith said he was “tired” of the national anthem protests and linking of arms in unity, adding he is ready to “get back to football.” Smith reasoned that Colin Kaepernick’s initial protest has been “hijacked” and the message has been “lost” because the protests are now anti-President Donald Trump, which he said just causes more “division.” Partial transcript as follows: The locking of the arms, the kneeling during the national anthems, I’m not going to lie to you all. I’m going to confess. I’m tired of it. I’m tired of it. Here is the reason why: number one, I want to get back to football. Number two and more importantly than getting back to football, I want to know what the hell we are going to really, really, really do about it. As far as I’m concerned, the real issue at hand has been hijacked. When you talk about oppression, when you talk about prejudice, when you talk about brutality on the part of police officers, can someone tell me what specifically has been done to address those issues that Colin Kaepernick supposedly was directing our ire towards? What actually has happened? I
