In case you missed it, on Wednesday the NFL updated their rule book with regards to protests during the National Anthem. If you’re super late to the game, a former NFL quarterback named Colin Kaepernick sparked league wide protests in 2016 when chose to kneel for the national anthem.

This week, the NFL announced that players and coaches are no longer able to participate in protests during the national anthem without penalty. The new ruling states that players and coaches have the option of staying in the locker room (make sure the cameras can’t see you) or to stand on the field during the national anthem. If any member fails to comply with the new regulations, the member’s team will be issued a fine which the team has the option to pass down to individual players.

When the controversy started in 2016, I remember being adamantly against Kaepernick. Does he know how good he has it? How does that look for the service men and women that are viewing the game? If he doesn’t like it, he can leave. Millions of Americans echoed, and still echo, these same thoughts. But, how many actually knew, or even now know, why Kaepernick was kneeling?

That was the question that was posed to me by a few of my old college football teammates on, of all things, Twitter. And to be frank, I didn’t know the answer. It wasn’t something that I looked into. So, I began to research.

When asked why he took a knee, Kapernick responded “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

I discovered he was taking a knee to oppose police brutality that disproportionately affects black people in America. That was something I could sympathize with. It was something that I had no personal experience in handling or could, being white, ever truly identify with. However, I could certainly stand by Kaepernick in his actions.

But there was still a nag in the back of my head; something that didn’t feel right. Why during the national anthem? Can’t he just bring it up in a post game interview? Why can’t he deal with it during his own personal time?

I posed those same questions to my old teammates on Twitter. Their answer was the key unlocked a different perspective for me. They said: who is to say when the right time to protest is or the correct manor in which to protest? That was something that got me thinking. You have to protest in radical ways in order to be heard.

Rosa Parks had to break social norms and sit at the front of a bus to make a statement. She could have went on protesting in non-radical ways. She could have kept marching on her own time and creating picket signs. But, would she be in the history books today? She was not protesting the bus, but using it as a tool get her message out.

Martin Luther King Jr. could have done his best not to ruffle any feathers in his movement. A march on Washington? But, what about all the traffic? And, you have to get 250,000 people to physically come to Washington. Maybe just make a speech on TV? Don’t do anything too drastic.

Gandhi’s acts were noble. But, did he really have to starve himself? Probably better to just keep marching. Someone will take notice, right? You don’t have to go to the extreme of starvation. Again, similar to Parks, he was not protesting the food, but rather using it as a tool create change.

History has shown one must shock the system to even get an argument into the conversation. That’s exactly what Kaepernick did. And, my belief and hope is that he will be received in the future much like the aforementioned characters in history.

Another lesson in my personal chronicle: social media can actually be used for good. Listen to what others have to say and put actual thought into their message. Sometimes, your opinions won’t change. Because, some people have asinine thoughts and opinions. Other times, it would behoove you to take someone’s opinion to heart and do a little research.

That being said, I continued to research and my findings were anything but patriotic on the side of the NFL. In fact, the NFL used to charge the military millions of dollars per year for pregame ceremonies. Between 2011 and 2014 there were 14 NFL teams that charged the military $5.4 million dollars to put on patriotic displays. That’s millions of tax payer dollars going to the NFL because they can’t seem to afford to allow military men and women to present the colors free of charge. Reminder: the NFL is a multi billion dollar organization.

Who is the real villain in this story? A man that caused no harm to anyone and peacefully protested a REAL issue in our society or an organization that charges the military, and thus us taxpayers, millions of dollars every year for a service that, without question, should come without expense.

Many will praise the NFL for the change in policy. The right wing media will buy in. You’re guaranteed to turn on Fox News and see Tomi Lahren spewing counterfeit patriotism. But, I don’t think these individuals have put any rational thought into the topic.

This isn’t something new. We are tribal by nature. If you strayed from your tribe in the time of cavemen, you’d likely find yourself alone in the wilderness, an easy target for predators. We have manifested that same prehistoric way of thinking into modern day politics. Are you a democrat or republican? Okay, well then you need to fall in line with these ideologies. Any deviation from that line will not be tolerated by the tribe. This has lead to the decay of an independent thought process. We no longer take the time to converse with the other side and make enlightened, analytic decisions.

Ultimately when it comes to Kaepernick, I don’t believe people have weighed their opinions critically. Have you talked with someone that opposes your view points? Did you actually listen to them or were you trying to make your point prevalent? Perhaps it’s time we engage opposition with open ears instead of closed fists.