A kneel before the anthem

In 2016 Colin Kaepernick, then a 49ers quarterback, sits for the anthem, then kneels after a conversation with Nate Boyer. He says it is about police violence and racial injustice. The league, the president, the comment threads, and a lot of owners treat it as a branding emergency.

He does not get another NFL job. Nike makes an ad. Other sports pick up the gesture. The anthem, which had been a routine, is a referendum. Mexico 1968 is the ancestor. This is the American football version, in a league that sells patriotism as packaging.

Whether you think he was right is not the ranking. The ranking is that a backup quarterback’s knee moved the most powerful league in the country off its talking points.