A Colorado Springs, Colorado, sporting goods store owner has decided to stop carrying Nike gear in his store in response to Nike’s partnership with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
The store, Prime Time Sports, is owned by Stephen Martin who was inspired by the Nike slogan to “just do it,” according to an interview with local KSN News.
The store currently has an entire wall, dedicated to Nike gear, and Martin is unsure if his store will be able to stay open without the athletic wear giant’s products.
“Pretty sure I won’t survive without them,” Martin said. “I gotta do what I gotta do. I’m just doing it.”
Martin’s decision came days after Kaepernick tweeted an image of himself, with the words, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” He accompanied the image with the hashtag #JustDoIt
Kaepernick’s tweet signaled the beginning of the Nike ad campaign, featuring the former NFL quarterback who became famous for kneeling during the national anthem at his games.
Martin’s plan, however, is two-fold. He is not only removing the brand from his store; he is also getting rid of all the Nike products in his wardrobe at home, saying that he was surprised at how much he personally owned.
Local news also interviewed the owner of the store next door, Jordan Park, who told reporters that he appreciates that his neighbor is “doing something.”
“I take no stance on it but I do appreciate that the store next door, Prime Time Sports is doing something about it,” Park said.
The Prime Time Sports owner isn’t just making this bold move against Nike because of his own experiences. He believes that it’s important to draw attention to who the real heroes are.
Martin told the story about his father-in-law, who was a POW and was forced to watch his fellow soldiers be beaten and even killed, and he wasn’t able to intervene.
“He said the hardest part for me was watching his fellow soldiers get beat up and killed in front of him and he couldn’t defend them because it would have cost him his life,” Martin said.
“So Colin, you don’t know what sacrifice is, you just don’t know what it is, in my opinion.”
Currently, Martin plans to deeply discount the merchandise and not replace the stock once it is gone.
Negro Please! He Is Such A Fraud And A Cancer. He Does Not Want To Play Football.
The Seattle Seahawks reportedly postponed Colin Kaepernick’s trip to a pre-season camp with the team after the embattled quarterback told the team he would not stop his national anthem kneeling protests.
The team is thinking about allowing Kaepernick to try out for a spot on the team but they have not made any decisions, a source told ESPN.
Kaepernick, a former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, was contacted by the Seahawks around two weeks ago to make a trip to the team’s center and practice. A source told ESPN the trip was put off after the Seahawks argued about Kaepernick’s anthem protest.
It’s unclear what day the quarterback was supposed to practice with the team.
The team reportedly asked Kaepernick if he would continue his protest if he was signed to the NFL again and he was “unwilling to give that assurance to them.”
Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem during the 2016 to 2017 season as part of a protest against police brutality while he was with the San Francisco 49ers. Many other NFL players joined his protest, which angered many — most notably President Trump, who said Kaepernick should have been “suspended” for kneeling.
“The NFL should have suspended him for one game and he would have never done it again,” Trump told Fox News Sean Hannity in October. “They could have then suspended him for two games and they could have suspended him again if he did it a third time, for the season, and you would never have had a problem.”
On Tuesday, Kaepernick attended a deposition with NFL lawyers in New York.
In October, Kaepernick filed a grievance case accusing NFL owners of colluding against him to keep him out of the league under a collective bargaining agreement. He opted out of his contract with the 49ers following the 2016 to 2017 season and has remained unsigned.
Since Kaepernick opted out of his contract, no NFL team has contacted him to join the team. The Baltimore Ravens were reportedly thinking about signing him last year but decided not to go forward.
Following news of the snub, ESPN senior correspondent Jemele Hill began tweeting about the report. Hill tweeted, “You mean it wasn’t just a football decision? :clutches imaginary pearls.”
“He’s such a locker room cancer that his teammates gave him the Len Eshmont Award, which is given to the player who best exemplifies courage and inspiration. Great point by you,” Hill tweeted to a social media user.
Time’s Person of the Year: ‘Silence Breakers’ speaking out against sexual harassment
Time magazine named “The Silence Breakers” — women who triggered a #MeToo national outcry over sexual harassment — as the 2017 “Person of the Year.”
The magazine said President Trump was runner-up for the top title, while Chinese President Xi Jinping was third on the list.
Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal revealed the cover on Wednesday morning’s Today show, which features Ashley Judd, Taylor Swift, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler and a woman whose face is obscured, intended to represent the women who haven’t yet come forward.
“This is the fastest-moving social change we’ve seen in decades, and it began with individual acts of courage by hundreds of women, and some men, who came forward to tell their own stories of sexual harassment and assault,” Felsenthal said. “The image you see partially on the cover is of a woman we talked to, a hospital worker in the middle of the country who shared her story with us and some others but doesn’t feel like she can come forward without threatening her livelihood.”
The Today show, which recently experienced its own harassment scandal that ousted former anchor Matt Lauer, also hosted actress Alyssa Milano and #MeToo creator Tarana Burke to talk about the cover, both of whom have spoken out about their own experiences with sexual misconduct
“This is the just the start, and I’ve been saying from the beginning that it’s not just a moment, it’s a movement,” Burke said.
Harvey Weinstein, whose scandal jump-started 2017’s months of reckoning over sexual harassment, looms large over the Time list, with Judd, one of the more than 80 women who have accused him of assault and sexual harassment, featured in the story. Also included is Selma Blair, who accused director James Toback of misconduct, with Swift speaking out against Denver radio DJ David Mueller whom she prevailed over in court this summer.
“When the jury found in my favor, the man who sexually assaulted me was court-ordered to give me a symbolic $1,” Swift told Time in an emailed interview, “To this day he has not paid me that dollar, and I think that act of defiance is symbolic in itself.”
Time’s list cuts across the entertainment, media, tech and service industries, including an unnamed housekeeper at the Plaza hotel.
It was the 91st year that the magazine has recognized the person or group of people who most influenced the news during the past year.
The shortlist included Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the Dreamers, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Colin Kaepernick, the former NFL quarterback who launched a national protest against racism and police brutality, special prosecutor Robert Mueller, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump caused a stir in the run-up to the selection when he tweeted last month that he turned down a potential offer to be the “person of the Year” after he was told only that he would “probably” be given the title.
“Time Magazine called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named “Man (Person) of the Year” like last year, but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot,” Trump tweeted from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
The magazine disputed the account, saying that the president is “incorrect about how we choose Person of the year.”
“Time does not comment on our choice until publication,” a spokeswoman told CNN.
GQ Magazine has named former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick as its “citizen of the year.”
The GQ cover features Kaepernick, and says in the top right corner, “Men of the Year: The New American Heroes.”
The quarterback has not played during the current season since he opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers. His supporters have complained that he has not been signed by a new team as a result of his decision to kneel in protest during the playing of the national anthem.
“In 2013, Colin Kaepernick was on the cover of this magazine because he was one of the best football players in the world,” GQ said. “In 2017, Colin Kaepernick is on GQ‘s cover once again—but this time it is because he isn’t playing football. And it’s not because he’s hurt, or because he’s broken any rules, or because he’s not good enough. Approximately 90 men are currently employed as quarterbacks in the NFL, as either starters or reserves, and Colin Kaepernick is better—indisputably, undeniably, flat-out better—than at least 70 of them.”
Kaepernick has stated he began protesting in response to “systemic racism” and policing in the United States.
“He is still, to this day, one of the most gifted quarterbacks on earth. And yet he has been locked out of the game he loves—blackballed—because of one simple gesture: He knelt during the playing of our national anthem,” the magazine continues.
Linda Sarsour, the Muslim co-organizer of the Women’s March who has been accused of having “ties” to the Palestinian militant Islamist group Hamas and of romanticizing Sharia law, is cited by GQfor her views on Kaepernick.
“You are an American hero. You may not feel like a hero right now, but one day, people will realize the sacrifices that you made for so many others,” Sarsour said, directed at Kaepernick.
“There might even be a day when we’ll be walking down Colin Kaepernick Boulevard and people will remember what Colin Kaepernick did, just like we remember Muhammad Ali. And I truly believe that in my heart,” she added.
