In the summer of 2016, during pre-season, the NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat alone on a bench during the national anthem before the San Francisco 49ers’ friendly against the Green Bay Packers.

His action marked the beginning of a remarkable season of protest in the league, in which he knelt during the anthem for all 16 games, and triggered a movement that has continued into this season.

Contrary to the hysterical criticism, this was not a protest against the anthem, the flag or the military but a chance to use a high-profile platform to say something about injustices within wider society. The videoed killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling by police in Minnesota and Louisiana respectively resulted in anger on the streets and Kaepernick took the conversation into the stadiums of the national sport.

The backlash was vicious – from huge sections of the media, from fans, from sponsors, from team owners and from the president of the United States.

The US trade union leader Nicholas Klein said in 1918: “First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.” For sports stars who speak up it could not be more apt.

There is precedent for protesting during the anthem and being driven out of sport as a result, from John Carlos and Tommie Smith raising a fist at the 1968 Olympics to the NBA’s Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf sitting out the anthem on religious grounds.

Others had joined the social outcry sweeping the country before Kaepernick’s knee. LeBron James and others donned hoodies after the killing of the unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 and wore ‘I can’t breathe’ T-shirts in tribute to 43-year-old Eric Garner, who died at the hands of police. Five St Louis Rams (now the LA Rams) players walked out in the “hands up, don’t shoot” pose, following the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in 2014.

Despite the barrage of abuse and the might of the sporting organisations pitted against them, both have won

But how come a blog on women’s footballhas come this far with no mention of women or football? It is because, where the stance of Kaepernick and others shows one way to air grievances in modern sport, that of the Chelsea forward Eni Aluko shows another.

Aluko did not protest. She did not seek the opportunity to bring her disquiet to the attention of the football authorities. She was asked to speak up when the Football Association approached her as an “iconic England player” to take part in its culture review. Yet she, like Kaepernick – who has to all intents been ostracised by NFL teams and filed a grievance accusing teams of collusion – has felt the consequences of her decision to be truthful.

She has not played for England since making her complaints of racism as a part of that review, despite winning the 2016 golden boot. She has had her five-year career as a sports lawyer cut short by a conveniently timed conflict of interest investigation. And she has found herself on the end of a barrage of criticism. From the Times journalist Matthew Syed to the former England goalkeeper David James her accused was defended and her accusations of racism were belittled. The FA’s investigations into her allegations were exposed as, frankly, farcical at the Digital, Sport and Media Select Committee inquiry into football governance. On the morning of that inquiry the FA was forced into a humiliating formal apology after a hurried second investigation by Katharine Newton, prompted by the press and public pressure, found that Aluko and her club-mate Drew Spence had been the victims of racist comments from the then England manager Mark Sampson.

Kaepernick and Aluko are not the first sports people to use their positions to try to instigate a conversation and better the situation for future players in their sports or society in general. The comparison of these two may seem odd. Whereas Aluko was raising issues of internal racism and alleged bullying (the FA said Newton found no evidence that Aluko was subjected to “a course of bullying and discriminatory conduct” by Sampson), Kaepernick was protesting against the regularity with which black people are being killed, primarily by police, in the US. But they are linked by choosing to act knowing it could affect their careers. And both cases say a lot about the lack of opportunities for athletes to raise criticism, internally or externally.

Kaepernick took a knee knowing full well he would likely feel the wrath of NFL bosses and team owners. In contrast Aluko played by the FA’s rules and was still thrown under the bus.

However, despite the barrage of abuse and the might of the sporting organisations pitted against them, both have won. Aluko may not pull on an England shirt again and Kaepernick may not find himself leading an NFL offense, but they have opened a discussion about what is considered acceptable within their sports, challenged players to be critical and presented a better image of what a modern sporting role model should be.

The FA and NFL, without proper structures to support players who are critical-thinking, intelligent, vocal and political and without providing platforms for players to speak freely without fear of recriminations, have handed the spade to their gravedigger. The FA’s failed handling of the Aluko and Sampson affairs has irreparably damaged the organisation’s image. The NFL has provoked more and more players into joining the movement Kaepernick started, resulting in the formation of ‘Athletes for Impact’, as those protesting get organised.

Wider society, on the whole, has embraced Aluko, Kaepernick and those who have followed them for their stances because they reflect voices and attitudes in society better than the organisations under whose umbrella they stand. They reflect the future of sport and sport governance. They are the kind of individuals who should replace the dinosaurs at the top of the FA grappling to save themselves from extinction and the NFL bosses feigning support for the protests they once decried in an attempt to neutralise them.

Talking points

Heather O’Reilly celebrates a goal in 2015 with Megan Rapinoe – both have signed up for the Common Goal charity initiative. Photograph: Jim Brown/USA Today Sports

• Following in the footsteps of the USA internationals Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd, six further women footballers have signed up to Juan Mata’s Common Goal initiative whereby players commit to donating at least 1% of their income to football-related charities.

The biggest group to commit so far includes the campaign’s first African player, Jean Sseninde from Uganda, who plays for Crystal Palace, Arsenal’s USA international Heather O’Reilly, Manchester City’s Pauline Brewer, the Colombia international Nicole Regnier, PSG’s Vero Boquete and Olga García from Barcelona – the first Spanish players to sign up alongside Mata.

• Chelsea’s manager, Emma Hayes, has killed off speculation linking her to the England manager position by signing a new three-and-a-half-year contract with the Blues. Hayes joined the club in 2012 and has overseen the switch to full-time professionalism and, this season, the move to their new home in Kingsmeadow. Chelsea have made a perfect start to the WSL season with three wins and three clean sheets and have progressed to the last 16 of the Champions League having fought past Bayern Munich.

• Sky Blue FC’s NWSL record-breaking goalscorer Sam Kerr has been named the season’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). The Australian forward scored 17 goals, breaking the 16-goal record of Scotland’s Kim Little in 2014.

• Iceland dealt the biggest shock of the World Cup qualifying games last week when they won 3-2 in Germany. The team ranked 21 in the world handed the football powerhouse a first World Cup qualifying defeat since 17 June 1998.

• After the failure of the Danish FA and players to end their dispute over pay, resulting in the cancellation of a World Cup qualifying match against Sweden, the Swedish FA has rejected moves from Denmark to rearrange the fixture. However, going against their association, Sweden’s Magalena Eriksson and Hedvig Lindahl have taken to Twitter to express their solidarity with their counterparts.

Eriksson tweeted: “Hi @UEFA ! I am willing to reschedule fridays #WCQagainst Denmark. The danish players have been punished enough already. #unity”

Lindahl wrote: “To @UEFA : If you are yet to decide what will happen to the Danish players with regards to the #WCQ, I am willing to reschedule the game.”