In a September 14, 2026 Dateline NBC interview with Lester Holt, Colin Kaepernick marked ten years since he knelt during the national anthem, saying the protest was specifically against police killing Black people and also targeted systemic oppression more broadly. He described the personal cost: people tried to send bombs to his house, he received death threats, and in Buffalo fans burned his jersey in front of the team bus and wore shirts showing him in a sniper scope. In a later interview he said he would kneel again knowing it would cost him his career. The discussion now weighs his stated aims against that cost and his refusal to recant.