May 22, 2021

Colin Kaepernick Forced to Live Off His Side Hustles—Unlike Tim Tebow

The QB’s latest gig: editing a new book about prison and police abolition.

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Colin Kaepernick appears to be a man with many jobs, just not the one he desperately wants.

If for some strange reason you’re following the NFL this offseason after a pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign that almost no one watched, then rest assured and take comfort in the fact that America’s favorite pastime is still as racist as it’s ever been. Case in point: Tim Tebow, a white conservative favorite who never quite gelled in the NFL as a signal caller, has just signed a one-year contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars to play tight end. Tebow’s signing caused something of a stir when ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith compared it to Kaepernick’s ongoing labor dispute and said it was yet another sign of “white privilege” in the NFL

Meanwhile, Kaepernick, a well-qualified quarterback who once led his team to a Super Bowl appearance, is still without an NFL job, so he’s keeping himself busy by editing a widely anticipated anthology on prison abolition.

Kaepernick has been shut out of the league since 2017, shortly after be began kneeling on the sideline during the national anthem as a protest against the extrajudicial killings of Black people by the police. In 2017, he landed a book deal with One World Publishing. In 2019, he won a collusion grievance against the NFL, which reportedly netted him “under $10 million,” according to ESPN. Kaepernick, who is biracial and was raised in a white family, has also worked with Ava DuVernay and Netflix on a limited series about his teenage years.

And now, his publishing company, Kaepernick Publishing, is hard at work on an anthology called “Abolition For the People,” which will include contributions from 30 contributors, and art by Emory Douglas, a graphic artist known for his work with the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.

All to say, sure, Kaepernick doesn’t have the job that he spent his life training for. But he’s making quite a few waves with his side hustles.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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