It’s been more than three days now since Colin Kaepernick rocked the country by refusing to stand during the national anthem prior to a Packers/49ers preseason game in San Francisco—which is pretty much an eternity on the internet—and yet, the debate surrounding Kaepernick’s decision not to stand continues to swirl around and elicit strong emotions from, well, everyone. Past and present NFL players, politicians, veterans, and everyday Americans have all sounded off on the controversy that Kaepernick has caused, and there have been more think pieces written about the subject than any other sports subject in recent memory.
With all of that in mind, it wasn’t surprising to see 49ers legend Jerry Rice chime in on the controversy on Monday night. But Rice stirred up some extra strong emotions on social media when he decided to do it by sending out a tweet that was critical of Kaepernick and included the words All Lives Matter:
The tweet has been retweeted more than 6,000 times (and counting!) since it went up just before midnight on Tuesday, and Rice’s name has been at or near the top of Twitter’s U.S. Trends list for most of the last nine hours as a result of it. Rice’s tweet clearly touched a nerve, and he’s been catching tons of backlash for it. Just take a look at how many people have reacted to it:
Things got so bad for Rice that, at one point, Randy Moss was trending on Twitter simply because so many people were saying that, because of Rice’s tweet, Moss should now be considered the best NFL wide receiver of all time:
Rice hasn’t offered up any other explanation with regards to Kaepernick yet. But thanks to the strong response his tweet received, he’s likely going to be pressed for further comment in the coming days.
