ESPN: Spike Lee to Direct Colin Kaepernick Documentary

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Paul Bois

Hollywood director Spike Lee will helm a documentary about the life of NFL anthem kneeler and former San Fransisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, ESPN films announced on Wednesday.

“Kaepernick, who has never given a full, first-person account of his journey, is collaborating closely with Lee who plans to use extensive new interviews and a vast never-before-seen archive to help Kaepernick tell his story from his perspective,” ESPN reported.

The project was first announced in 2021 as part of ESPN’s “first-look deal” with Kaepernick’s production company Ra Vision Media. It will be produced by ESPN films along with 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. Former ESPN personality Jemele Hill is also serving as a producer.

Spike Lee has previously praised Kaepernick as a modern-day Muhammad Ali.

The documentary will follow the recent Netflix series chronicling the player’s life, which sparked a firestorm of criticism when it featured Kaepernick comparing the NFL combines with a slavery auction. As Breitbart News reported at the time:

In the series Colin In Black & White, which Kaepernick narrates, the former 49er appears in a scene where he talks about NFL prospects being “poked, prodded, and examined” for defects before the NFL Draft. The players at the “combine” then leave the NFL field and enter a mid-1800’s slave auction where white landowners examine slaves for purchase.

In the scene, Kaepernick says this is how “they” establish a “power dynamic.” The scene closes with the NFL coach and slave auctioneer shaking hands against the backdrop of bonded slaves, in an attempt to establish a generational link between the professional athlete selection process and slavery.

Back in 2016, Kaepernick launched a protest movement when he said that America has been allowing cops to “murder” black people and demanded police officers undergo further training.

 (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

He has since been a cause celebre for social justice warriors, who believe he was unfairly blacklisted by the NFL. Following the violent protests and riots in response to George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, Colin Kaepernick seemed to oppose civil protests, arguing that civility “leads to death.”

“When civility leads to death, revolting is the only logical reaction,” Kaepernick tweeted. “The cries for peace will rain down, and when they do, they will land on deaf ears, because your violence has brought this resistance. We have the right to fight back!”

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