Nancy Armour

USA TODAY Sports

The silence is deafening.

Trent Dilfer, Kate Upton, Tony La Russa, Drew Brees, Rodney Harrison — they and many, many others were quick to criticize Colin Kaepernick and other athletes for kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and inequality. It was disrespectful to the country. Or the flag. Or the military. Or law enforcement and first responders. Or … something.

Besides, Kaepernick and Co. are ungrateful, self-absorbed millionaires. What could they possibly know? If they were that concerned, they should be doing something in the community rather than making spectacles of themselves when the country really just wants to watch football.

So where are they now, the Dilfers, the Uptons, the La Russas and all the other Kaepernick critics? Where is the outrage and the indignation for Terence Crutcher, the unarmed black man who was killed by Tulsa police late last week after he was gunned down and lay bleeding in the street for almost two minutes before anyone went to help him?

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“This is a perfect example of what this is about,” Kaepernick said Tuesday.

Where is the disgust and concern for the death threats Kaepernick has gotten? Where is the acknowledgment that, uncomfortable as these past three weeks have been, these are conversations this country needs to have?

The silence speaks volumes.

Maybe Brees will get to it after he’s done promoting his business interests on Twitter, as he did Tuesday. Maybe Upton will now that she’s done lecturing us on that addendum to the Constitution that requires standing at rapt and solemn attention for the national anthem – unless you’re busy taking a photo, that is, or responding to a text message.

“There’s a lot of racism disguised as patriotism in this country,” Kaepernick said, “and people don’t like to address that and they don’t like to address what the root of this protest is.”

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Jerry Rice, he of the “All Lives Matter” tweet after Kaepernick’s protest initially came to light, seems to have come around. On Tuesday afternoon, he tweeted that he supports Kaepernick “for bringing awareness for injustice !!!”

“As Americans we all have rights!” the Hall of Fame receiver said. “I’m hoping we all come together #solution”

Try as so many have to brush off the protests by athletes, to frame them in such a way so as to distort or ignore the message, Kaepernick and the others who have so bravely taken a stand refuse to be denied. The discrimination they are protesting is too damaging to all of us to go unchallenged.

It is telling that, each week, their numbers grow. What started with one person has spread to at least seven other NFL teams and Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. women’s soccer team. It has trickled down to colleges and high schools.

And for those who say the athletes should be doing more, they’re doing that, too. Kaepernick announced Tuesday he will donate $100,000 a month for the next 10 months, with a website allowing the public to track where the money is going. Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall spent a day last week with the city’s police chief.

"It had nothing to do with necessarily disrespecting the flag or not representing the country,” Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said after he and at least two other teammates raised their fists during the national anthem before their Monday Night Football game against the Chicago Bears.

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“The issue is about the treatment of African Americans and minorities in this country, when you talk about social injustice.”

All Kaepernick and the other athletes are asking is that people hear them out. That we at least consider that reality for so many others does not resemble our own, and examine how to bridge the divides.

“It’s simply to continue the conversation about social injustice and keep that relevant,” Jenkins said.

But that conversation has grown decidedly one-sided. So many of those who were so quick to criticize Kaepernick and the other athletes are now noticeably silent.

And that says it all.

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Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour

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