Ten years after he helped shape the quarterback’s anthem protest, the former NFL player and Army veteran says he still sees it as an act of patriotism

Nate Boyer was stunned. The former NFL long snapper and United States Army Green Beret had big plans for his MVP (Merging Vets and Players) foundation, an organization that helps veterans and NFL players address the challenges that await once they take the uniform off for good. MVP was all set for a season-long college football activation tour thanks to a five-figure sponsorship from a well-known brand that happens to be one of the NFL’s longstanding partners. Boyer and his team were prepping for their trip to Columbus for Ohio State’s home opener. Everything was ready to go. Thousands in upfront costs had been spent. Then the company pulled out.

“They suddenly stopped replying to emails,” Boyer says. “Finally, on that Thursday, when I was at the airport en route, I called our point person, also a veteran, who begrudgingly told me what was going on.”

A decade after Kaepernick’s quiet protest shook the NFL, his exile looks less like an aberration than a blueprint for the culture war that followed

America likes nice round numbers, perfect for anniversaries and reflections, and it has, suddenly, been 10 years since Colin Kaepernick first protested police killings – more accurately, police killings of Black people that went unpunished either internally or by the courts – by taking a knee during the national anthem for the entirety of the 2016 NFL regular season. He never played in the league again.

Ten years covers a lot of ground, especially in these years of American darkness, and many of the important details surrounding Kaepernick, his banishment and significance have disappeared, time replaced by more time and more darkness – time moving faster than ever, at internet speed, where nothing matters, where nothing sticks. We consume by clip, by click, by meme, and knowledge by meme is not knowledge at all.