Akiem Hicks didn't want his NFL career to end during the 2016 season. He thought if he took a knee during the national anthem it would all be over, so he stayed standing.
Colin Kaepernick famously took a different approach. Four years later, Hicks is coming off his eighth season (plus a Pro Bowl appearance in 2018), and Kaepernick hasn't taken a snap in the league since the 2016 season ended.
IYER: Pete Carroll's comments on Kaepernick fail to revise history
Hicks doesn't think that's a coincidence.
"All I will say is this: We saw it. We watched how it unfolded," Hicks said Wednesday, via the Chicago Sun-Times. "And we see that he doesn’t have a job now. This call isn't to advocate for Kap getting a job, but he did sacrifice his position for where he is now. His career was ended because of it, in my opinion. We signed Mike Glennon."
Hicks brought up Glennon, a quarterback who signed a three-year deal worth $45 million with Chicago in 2017, after going 5-13 as a starter in Tampa Bay. Glennon went 1-3 in his first four starts in Chicago before Mitchell Trubisky, who was drafted in the same offseason, took over as the starter.
The Bears acquired Nick Foles from the Jaguars in a trade this offseason to compete with Trubisky for the starting QB job. If he takes over, then Foles will be the fourth different quarterback to start for the Bears since 2017.
Kaepernick hasn't had a personal workout for a team since he became a free agent after the 2016 season. Hicks said he feared that's what would happen to him if he took a knee.
"I had the same thought that 85-90 percent of the league felt at that moment: If I get down on one knee in front of this stadium, I am fired; my job, my life, my career is over. I will be blackballed," Hicks said. “And then, to come out on the other end and watch it actually happen to Kaepernick just tells me that my feelings were real. It was the reality, and hopefully, it won't be going forward."