Internet rumours claim that NFL player Colin Kaepernick was arrested after running onto the pitch during a San Francisco football game when the US national anthem was being played.
The rumours claim that Kaepernick kneeled during the anthem and raised his fist in the air. Subsequent rumours claimed that as a result, Kaepernick was fired from Nike which feature him in their advertisements.
However the rumours are false. The rumours in this case seem to have spawned from the America’s Last Line of Defense spoof news network, which often capitalises on controversial headlines to lure traffic to their websites. On September 9th 2018, the site published the following headlines –
BREAKING: Kaepernick Arrested for Publicity Stunt During Anthem in San Fran
UPDATE: Nike Fires Colin Kaepernick After Arrest
The rumours were penned on two websites in that America’s Last Line of Defense, WorstPot.us and TrumpBetrayed.us. Such sites are operated by hoaxer Christopher Blair, a self-confessed prankster who targets conservative readers in the US. His websites have a definition of satire at the foot of each page.
As such, the stories are simply made up. Kaepernick did not run onto the field during a San Fransico game, he was never arrested and he has not (at the time of writing) been fired by Nike.
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Colin Kaepernick, one of the NFL football players who knelt during the playing of the US national anthem to protest against police brutality against African-Americans, was controversially hired by Nike to appear in their promotional materials.
Controversial stories such as this are a magnet for spoof news networks who capitalise on such stories to create nonsense stories in a bid to attract Internet traffic. Many fake stories have appeared related to the Kaepernick Nike deal. We recommend being careful when choosing what stories you choose to share online and make sure they come from a reputable source.