Ava DuVernay Refuses To Watch Super Bowl Over Colin Kaepernick Treatment

Ava DuVernay Refuses To Watch Super Bowl Over Coline Kaepernick Treatmen

Ava DuVernay will not be watching the Super Bowl. Earlier today (Feb. 2nd), the director announced on social media that she would not be watching. Posting a link to a Washington Post article about Colin Kaepernick, she writes:

Today during the Super Bowl, the National Football League and its allies will sanitize and co-opt a black protest movement. I refuse to watch that happen before my eyes as if it’s all good. Some things are worth more than an afternoon of football. https://t.co/jl5N8VfoyA

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) February 2, 2020

Following his departure from the 49ers in 2016, Kaepernick went unsigned through the off-season and 2017 training camps, leading to allegations that he was being blackballed because of his on-field political statements as opposed to his performance.

Colin Kaepernick

In October 2017, Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL, accusing league owners of collusion to keep him out of the league. The NFL requested to dismiss the case but was denied by an arbitrator which meant the case would go to trial. In 2019, it was announced that Kaepernick reached a confidential settlement with the NFL and withdrew the grievance. In a related case, Eric Reid, who was the first to join Kaepernick in kneeling when they were 49ers teammates, also settled with the league. Reid had been unsigned for a stretch before joining the Carolina Panthers.

This isn’t Ava DuVernay’s first time boycotting the Super Bowl or the NFL. In 2019, she boycotted the Super Bowl writing on Twitter:

“I will not be a spectator, viewer or supporter of the #SuperBowl today in protest of the @NFL’s racist treatment of @Kaepernick7 and its ongoing disregard for the health + well-being of all its players. To watch the game is to compromise my beliefs. It’s not worth it,” the filmmaker tweeted Sunday, adding the hashtag #ImWithKap.

What are your thoughts on Ava’s stance? Let us know in the comments.