Letters: Kaepernick sits, and readers take a stand

Dear Colin,

Hey, just a quick note to thank you, bro, for taking the heat off! Now, the whole country is debating your actions, which means everyone has pretty much forgotten about me. You go, man! #meatheadsunited

Signed, Ryan Lochte

Richard Turnage

Burbank

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Colin Kaepernick seems to have taken over the news lately. He has now become the most famous second-string quarterback in NFL history. Like most people, I agree that he is within his rights to stage his sit-in during the playing of our national anthem. I also believe that this blatant demonstration of disrespect to our country is the wrong way of going about his “protest” against the police. Hopefully, fans will stage their own protest and give Kaepernick an earful. They are certainly within their own rights to do so.

Charles Reilly

Manhattan Beach

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Colin Kaepernick’s protest by sitting during the national anthem was a selfish act with a selfish motive. It was not to bring attention to a serious issue, as he claims, but to get the 49ers to release him. Kaepernick has realized that he no longer has the skills to be an NFL quarterback, at least with the 49ers, and would prefer to be cut. The team has an insurance policy to cover his remaining contract, thus it might happen. If it does, Kaepernick can blame it on his protest and not his demise as a quarterback.

Wayne Muramatsu

Cerritos

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Before his recent protest, how involved was Kaepernick in the protest movement? Has he been involved in BLM protests? Has he been actively involved in community life in matters of discrimination, housing, poverty, education? Has he done anything to help in the ongoing movement against racial profiling? Has he been arrested in any actions? Unless it can be proven that he has actually done something that involves real sacrifice and risk, then I argue that what he did was nothing more than a cheap and easy publicity stunt.

Charles Smith

Moreno Valley

There’s a catch

Do you think the Warriors signed Kevin Durant before talking to Steph Curry? Do you think the Cavaliers changed coaches mid-stream without consulting with LaBron? Do you think the Patriots would trade for a wide receiver without Tom Brady’s approval? Yet, Andrew Friedman’s ego knows no bounds. He traded the best friend and on-field enabler of Clayton Kershaw — arguably the most valuable and irreplaceable player in any sport — without giving him a heads-up as to what was coming. If Kershaw opts out of his contract at some later date, we’ll point to this moment as the impetus and Friedman as the culprit.

Allan Kandel

Los Angeles

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In all fairness to Mario Mendoza, shouldn’t the new standard for futility in baseball hitting be renamed The Reddick Line?

Herb Schoenberg

Tarzana

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With Clayton Kershaw having been out indefinitely, and Josh Reddick struggling at the plate since being acquired last month, the only logical equation to best theorize the Dodgers’ recent surge into first place in the NL West is: Addition by subtraction = Puig

Larry Herrera

Redondo Beach

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Even as a Dodgers fan, I have no sympathy for their “record number” of injuries. This is mainly due to acquiring unhealthy players and gaming the system by stashing unproductive players with hangnails and jock itch on the DL.

Bennett Beebe

Westwood

A lot on the line

I just read that former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt has bought French soccer team Marseille. If history proves right, in 10 years McCourt will drive the former power into the ground and will be forced to sell. But I’m sure he’ll find a way to keep ownership of the team’s parking lot!

Jack Wolf

Westwood

A Series plea

Dear Mr. Scully,

Despite ongoing pleas to call one last World Series game, your modesty compels you to decline. But I ask one more time, please reconsider.

Do it for Red, your mentor, and the rest of your generation of incredible play-by-play callers; for Mel Allen and Russ Hodges, for Buck and Brickhouse and Caray, for Hamilton and Harwell. What we wouldn’t give to hear those legendary voices call one more World Series game. Give us that one last opportunity to hear you.

Do it for Duke and Pee Wee and Campy and Newk. For Sandy and Don, Garvey and Penguin and Gibson. For Fernando and Hideo. For Jackie.

Do it for the old timers in Brooklyn and the kids in the Valley.

Do it for Aaron’s 715th and Mookie’s little roller up along first.

But mostly, do it for the fans, millions of us, who long to pull up a chair and hear you make one more call.

Tom Snee

Iowa City

Is defense ready?

I can almost guarantee Alabama’s first offensive play today will be a bubble screen, Lane Kiffin’s way of rubbing it in. As for the rest of the game, Alabama is just too big and strong and deep —like USC used to be.

Gary Cocayne

Santa Monica

Ramming it

The headline summed up my feelings: “Hard Knocks gets to football, eventually.” I have watched every “Hard Knocks” series for the past six years and have enjoyed all of them except this one. Now I have a good understanding why the Rams have had so many bad seasons in a row: If you employ players that believe in mermaids, think that dinosaurs never existed, and your No. 1 pick doesn’t know where the sun rises or sets, you may need some more intelligent players.

Carl J. Doerksen

Mission Viejo

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Jared Goff needn’t worry. With more hard work, he can be the next Brett Hundley: a second-string quarterback who also foolishly entered the draft after his junior year.

Ron Reeve

Glendora

He is driven

How appropriate: On the baseball field, Mike Trout has always been a Mercedes surrounded by a lot of Chevys.

S. J. Faerstein

Beverly Hills

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