San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has triggered so much revulsion and anger for his take-a-knee protest of racial injustice, "for his own safety," the NFL "is going to have to stop it," Fox News' Bill O'Reilly said Tuesday night.
During an interview with Miami Herald sportswriter Armando Salguero on "The O'Reilly Factor," the host praised Salguero for a biting column that slammed Kaepernick's praise of Fidel Castro two days before the 49ers played the Dolphins – and a day before the death of the communist leader was announced.
"The hypocrisy to me was that he . . . kneeled down and protested on the sidelines and then hours later . . . he praises an oppressor," Salguero said of Kaepernick's comments last Friday.
"So he is against systematic oppression on the one hand, and then putting a systematic oppressor on his shirt and proudly doing so."
O'Reilly pointed out Miami Dolphins fans the following Sunday booed loudly when Kaepernick took the field.
"I think it's reached critical mass," O'Reilly said of Kaepernick's public protest.
"I think the [NFL], for his own safety, for Kaepernick's own safety, is going to have to stop it."
"I agree he has a right to say it," O'Reilly added. "But I fear for the guy's safety. I really do at this point. I think he is so far out there, he has alienated so many people. You heard the boos at [the] stadium. It was thundering when he came out there."
"So I think the league for Kaepernick's own protection has got to find a way to mitigate it," O'Reilly said, giving Salguero the "last word."
"Let's put it this way," the sports columnist said. "Colin Kaepernick is very fortunate that there are not more Cuban Americans playing in the NFL."