Football season is upon us and preseason camp is near. Hence, it’s not too early for sports columnists and the like to start a good dialogue in defense of (still) free-agents, Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid.

At least AP’s Paul Newberry seems to think they are in need of promoting and defending:

Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid are good enough to be playing for someone.

That much is beyond debate.

But the league has decided to make an example of them, a clear warning to its employees that only so much social activism will be tolerated even while it feigns a sense of respecting their desire to protest during the national anthem.

If the NFL were really concerned about its players, it wouldn’t be denying these two their well-earned right to make a living.

Rest assured, history won’t be kind when it looks back on the way Kaepernick and Reid were treated by the NFL.

.@AP's Newberry calls for .@NFL dtrike if Kaepernick not signed https://t.co/h81xgMYmjG

Memo to .@NFLPA: Send your bills to Paul Newberry if you go on strike & run short of cash.

— ❌IvyDevilDog, Esq.❌ (@DogIvy) July 30, 2018

LOL! If the goal is to strike until Kaepernick's signed, we may never have another game!

AP: NFL Players Should Strike if Kaepernick Not Signed https://t.co/CqoqEBT2ZN

— GI JANE, not JOE! #MAGAveteran (@EnBolden2) July 29, 2018

Newberry compares Kaepernick to Muhammad Ali, who was stripped of his heavyweight boxing title and barred from the ring for more than three years after he refused induction into the military during the Vietnam War. He went on to further compare Kaepernick to Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who defiantly stood with their fists in the air on the medal podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics in protest.

The suggestion to get Kaepernick and Reid back on the playing field?

“Maybe a one-day sickout during training camp. Or kneeling en masse before the first game. Perhaps, as a last resort, they should consider an actual strike.”

The pig-socks-wearing-cop-hater, Kaepernick is apparently a hero, according to Newberry, who has “sacrificed so much” and “hung out to dry”.

Newberry seems to think Kaepernick has suffered at the hands of injustice. The quarterback was privileged enough to play for the NFL and get paid handsomely for his efforts yet he has been “hung out to dry”? He played for the city of San Francisco and lived in a 3 million dollar mansion in San Jose while people lived in tents and squalor in the city he represented. Did he help? No. He sat on his ass and when he did not do that, he kneeled. Let’s put this in perspective, shall we? How about the veterans who have sacrificed so much? The holidays, birthdays, anniversaries spent without their families? How about the families who anticipated a happy homecoming and were met with a flag-draped coffin? Nope. Colin Kaepernick could not even muster up the respect to even stand for them. He kneeled for that same flag. But Newberry thinks he is brave, y’all. Because some injustice or something that he has never experienced in his own lifetime.

Paul Newberry says these players have been vilified by the NFL community and fans. You know what? It’s so easy to be brave when you have a multi-million dollar mansion and gated communities to keep you safe. They’ve displayed poor sportsmanship and now, they are martyrs. They disrespected true heroes yet some in the sports world revel in their “heroism”.

If NFL players and garbage collectors went on strike, I know which group people would miss the most.

— Chuck Vipperman (@ChuckVipperman) July 30, 2018

So, go ahead, virtuous NFL players. Go on a “sick-out” or like a strike or something. Do it. Hear that? It’s America striking, too. It’s the sound of America turning off their television sets on Sunday afternoons. See that? It’s more of our hard-earned money saved by not paying the ridiculous prices for stadium seats and NFL paraphernalia. Kneel on with your bad self, Kaepernick! Kneel on.