This was *before* people noticed him sitting during the national anthem.

Hello. Perhaps you've seen photos like these floating around the internet very recently:

John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports

ENHANCE:

That is Colin Kaepernick, and he's at 49ers camp wearing socks that depict little piggies wearing police hats. I am not here to tell you how to feel about the socks with the piggies wearing police hats. I am just here to tell you that the photo was taken on August 10, weeks before most of us noticed Kaepernick wasn't standing during the national anthem. Oh, and if you want to buy the socks, they're here.

Kaepernick actually wore patterned socks throughout training camp, of all different varieties:

USA Today Sports

If there's a point, it's just these two things:

1. No, Colin Kaepernick is not "now" wearing those socks (although I guess I haven't seen his socks at this very moment, so who's to say?!)

2. In more ways than one, Kaepernick was expressing his feelings about police brutality and the oppression of black people in the United States well before people started asking him about those feelings.

Since the photo of the socks got spread around, Kaepernick felt compelled to respond in an Instagram post:

(h/t Niners Nation)

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Criticism of Kaepernick sitting for national anthem