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Brett Favre compares Colin Kaepernick to Pat Tillman, thinks Kaepernick will be stamped with 'hero status'

Brett Favre compares Colin Kaepernick to Pat Tillman, thinks Kaepernick will be stamped with 'hero status'
Posted at 10:21 AM, Jun 22, 2020
and last updated 2020-06-22 11:22:38-04

Brett Favre thinks Colin Kaepernick will be stamped with "hero status," and believes the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback should get another chance to play in the NFL.

The Packers legend made the comments in an interview with TMZ Sports on Sunday.

Favre also compared Kaepernick to Pat Tillman, the former Arizona Cardinals safety who left his football career to serve in the United States Army and was killed in Afghanistan in 2004 as a result of friendly fire.

"It's not easy for a guy his age - Black, white, Hispanic, whatever - to stop something that you've always dreamed of doing and put it on hold maybe forever for something that you believe in," Favre said in the interview.

"I can only think of, off the top of my head, Pat Tillman's the only other guy that did something similar," Favre said. "And we regard him as a hero. I assume that hero status will be stamped with Kaepernick as well."

Favre also said he believes Kaepernick could still play in the NFL.

"I think from a football sense, I can't imagine him being that far out of shape or that far out of touch with football that he doesn't deserve a shot," Favre said.

"I thought he was a dynamic player," he continued. "And he's still young and hasn't been hit in several years so there's no reason to think that he's lost that much of a step."

Kaepernick has not played since the 2016 season when he began kneeling during the pregame national anthem as a way to protest police brutality and racial injustice. He opted out of his contract in March of 2017 and has not received much interest from NFL teams.

The 32-year-old Wisconsin native has been in the news again lately after recent protests have brought further awareness to the issues he was protesting. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said earlier this month he would encourage an NFL team to sign Kaepernick.

WGBA's Brandon Kinnard first reported this story.