<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Washington Examiner</em> economics columnist <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/author/tiana-lowe-doescher/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tiana Lowe Doescher</a> criticized former <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/nfl/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NFL</a> player <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/colin-kaepernick/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Colin Kaepernick</a> for labeling the NFL as <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/slavery/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">slavery</a>.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“You know what the difference between the compensation of being an NFL player and being an actual slave is? The difference is that it exists. You didn’t get paid, you couldn’t just walk away, and you certainly didn’t beg to be brought back into the slave system,” Doescher stated on Newsmax’s <em>The Right Squad</em> on Monday.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Former NFL player Ryan Clark hosted Kaepernick on his podcast <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/colin-kaepernick-beyond-the-headlines-beyond-the/id1603292451?i=1000790566343" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>The Pivot</em></a>, where Kaepernick drew a comparison between the NFL combine and slavery.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“When did you truly start to have the realization that, ‘Hey, this does, in this sense, remind me of the slave trade’?” Clark asked.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Kaepernick mentioned that obedience is part of the process and that players do what they are told. He indicated that if players perform to the standards set by the league, they will be compensated.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">He also discussed the humiliation of feeling stripped, likening it to a “slave auction.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Like ‘I’m in this prison of multimillion dollars,’” Lowe Doescher remarked.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Despite these statements, Kaepernick has expressed interest in returning to the NFL. He has not played since 2017, when he was the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I’d trade like six Ukrainians for Colin Kaepernick,” Lowe Doescher added.</p>