Colin Kaepernick calls out Jay Z, Beyonce after they sit through national anthem: 'We were past kneeling tho?'
Colin Kaepernick took aim at Jay Z and Beyonce after a video emerged of the couple sitting while the national anthem played at the Super Bowl.
"I thought we were 'past kneeling' tho?" the former 49ers quarterback wrote on his Instagram story, just a day after Jay Z suggested that his approach of kneeling during the anthem had proven to be ineffective, The Sun reports.
According to a video obtained by TMZ, the couple decided not to stand at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami while Demi Lovato beautifully sang the Star-Spangled Banner.
As Lovato delivered the stunning performance, Jay Z and Beyonce's eight-year-old daughter Blue Ivy was spotted recording the same on her cellphone. Meanwhile, most of the audience in the stadium stood ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs vs San Francisco 49ers final.
The contentious back and forth began just a day after Jay Z defended his NFL partnership against allegations of betraying the former San Francisco 49ers' quarterback.
"As long as real people are being hurt and marginalized and losing family members, then yes, I can take a couple rounds of negative press," Jay-Z told The New York Times.
In the NYT interview published on Saturday, the American rapper and businessman suggested it's time to move on from Kaepernick, explaining that the motive behind his partnership was solely to help battle social inequality within the league.
“No one is saying he hasn’t been done wrong. He was done wrong," Jay Z said. "I would understand if it was three months ago. But it was three years ago and someone needs to say, ‘What do we do now — because people are still dying?’"
“We are two adult men who disagree on the tactic but are marching for the same cause," he added.
Kaepernick was boycotted by the NFL after a series of protests as part of the Black Lives Matter movement that saw him "take a knee" during the national anthem in solidarity with victims of police brutality and social injustice.
Nonetheless, his actions sparked outrage among the thousands of patriotic NFL fans who claimed he disrespected the American flag.