Curt Schilling: ‘Spike Lee Comparing Colin Kaepernick to Jackie Robinson’ Is ‘a Special Kind of Stupid’

Colin-Kaepernick-Jackie-Robinson-Getty-AP
Christian Petersen/Getty Images, John Rooney/AP Photo

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling joined Breitbart’s Washington Political Editor Matthew Boyle on Tuesday’s edition of Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM to discuss San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s controversial refusal to stand for the National Anthem.

“Clearly he’s trying to send a message, and to be very clear, I’m proud of the fact – and I don’t know how this is going to come across – that I live in a country where he can do what he did, and not go to jail, be hung, or shot,” Schilling said of Kaepernick. “Because that’s not true in all of the world.”

Having said that, Schilling argued “there’s a billion other ways, I think, to get the message out.”

“It’s doing what a lot of people, like Spike Lee, would like it to do. It’s creating anger,” he continued. “I don’t know to what end. I mean, the Civil Rights Act was a pretty defining time in this country. We passed the laws that everyone is supposed to receive equal treatment. You can’t discriminate on the basis of sex and color. You can’t legislate morality. You can’t pass laws to make people not be bad.”

“We do – and I say ‘we’ collectively, as a country – I think we could do a much better job of it. But I’m tired of hearing people say, and I’m sick of, I’m not hearing any answers or resolutions,” Schilling continued. “Michael Jordan made it very clear, he donated a million dollars to both sides of this argument, and said we need to sit down at a table and figure it out. Colin Kaepernick’s made over a hundred million bucks. I don’t see any of his money in the Black Lives Matter movement, or to support the lives of the families of officers who were shot and killed, or assassinated, in the line of duty.”

Schilling was referring to Michael Jordan’s donation of $1 million apiece to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Institute for Community-Police Relations in July. “I can no longer stay silent. We need to find solutions that ensure people of color receive fair and equal treatment AND that police officers – who put their lives on the line every day to protect us all – are respected and supported,” Jordan said.

Schilling criticized Kaepernick for “making a statement, and after eighteen corrections for his actions, I’m not sure what the statement is.” However, he didn’t think Kaepernick was merely pulling a stunt to draw attention to himself, in what could be the waning days of his football career.

Schilling took a dim view of efforts to portray Kaepernick as a civil rights hero.

“When you hear people like Spike Lee comparing Colin Kaepernick to Jackie Robinson, that’s a special kind of stupid, is what that is,” Schilling declared. “Jackie Robinson and what African-Americans, especially baseball players, went through to become major-league ball players – that’s the definition of racism and oppression, the things they lived and endured.”

“No one can deny the fact that there’s violence in our inner cities,” he said. “That doesn’t make it okay. That doesn’t mean we can’t try to fix it and amend it. This is not who we are as a country. Again, the Civil Rights Act was passed for everyone to be put on an equal footing. Now, you say people don’t do that, the law isn’t being followed – well, you can only do so much. Do you want to have a police state? Do you want the government to run our daily lives, to quote-unquote ‘ensure’ no racism? That’s the quickest way to get there, to get to racism, is to do something like that.”

Schilling suggested the NFL has tolerated considerably worse behavior from other players, and so would be unlikely to punish Kaepernick, “unless it costs them money.”

“That’s the pathetically sad part about this,” he said. “I’m looking at this, and saying to myself, you know what, he’s going to get cut, or he’s going to make the roster, based on his ability to play the game, but it’s going to be a lot easier for the San Francisco 49ers to cut him after this. And I’ll tell you what happens – as soon as this happens, as soon as he gets released from the 49ers roster, if that happens, he becomes kryptonite for about 30 other teams in the NFL.”

A caller argued that it was hypocritical for the NFL to deny the Dallas Cowboys permission to honor fallen police officers with a sticker on their helmets, while indulging Kaepernick’s demonstration.

“It’s very much a double standard, but it’s also, as I said earlier, it’s about the money,” Schilling said. “The NFL won’t allow those players to put those stickers on their helmets because an advertiser didn’t pay for that space. They don’t care about the message. They’ve never cared about the message.”

“Colin Kaepernick’s going to sit, and refuse to stand for the national anthem. How about Colin Kaepernick sits, and protests, and refuses to take his paycheck?” he suggested. “That’s a protest.”

Schilling is currently engaged in raising money for the Jimmy Fund, “the enormously successful charity that handles pediatric cancer at Dana-Farber.”

“It’s full of amazing people, and patients, and survivors,” he said. “I count myself among the survivors of cancer. I get to go in there, and talk, and be a part of it. It’s an honor, and it’s a privilege.”

Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

LISTEN:

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.