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Chicago area mattress salesman wants customers to wipe feet on Kaepernick jersey

Frank Schwab
NFL writer

It’s funny, a lot of the critics of the NFL players who are protesting during the national anthem say they’re doing it just to bring attention to themselves.

When we talk about true attention seekers though, how about this mattress salesman in Chicago? The CBS affiliate in Chicago reports that Dave Gerwing, who owns a mattress store in Crestwood, has put a Colin Kaepernick jersey on the floor of his store. He has a sign encouraging people to wipe their feet on it.

A suburban Chicago mattress salesman has a Colin Kaepernick jersey on his floor (chicago.cbslocal.com screen shot)
A suburban Chicago mattress salesman has a Colin Kaepernick jersey on his floor (chicago.cbslocal.com screen shot)

“People have made the ultimate sacrifice. They have died for our freedoms,” Gerwing told CBS 2, invoking another incorrect criticism. “Sitting down on your butt is nothing more than a disservice and disrespect to the people fighting for our rights.”

Gerwing goes on to say that Kaepernick has a right to protest and he has a right to put his jersey on the floor for people to wipe their feet on it, which is correct. Nobody can stop him from his ignorant publicity stunt. Hopefully he’s as outraged over unarmed Terence Crutcher being shot by police in Tulsa as he is about an NFL player staging a peaceful, non-disruptive protest over racial injustice and police brutality.

“We do have racial issues in this country,” Gerwing told CBS 2. “Is this country perfect? Absolutely not. There are issues that do need to be dealt with, but it’s pretty, pretty good, if you ask me.”

So apparently “there are issues that do need to be dealt with,” but please don’t do anything peaceful to bring attention to them.

There are a lot of bad arguments about players like Kaepernick and Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall protesting. A lot have to do with how much money they have to make, which is inconsequential to anything. Some invoke the military, because that’s an easy way to paint the players as evil, even though it’s intellectually dishonest because everyone knows the protest has zero to do with the military. And then there’s the old crutch of dismissing the players’ motivations, by proclaiming they’re just trying to get attention.

Some folks are desperately trying to drag attention to themselves via the national anthem protest, but it’s not the players.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!