By Mike Freeman
NABJ Black News & Views
https://blacknewsandviews.com/
I don’t remember the exact day it happened. It’s still a blur. A year or so later. But one day I got a note from Spike Lee‘s production company saying Lee wanted to interview me for his upcoming documentary about the life of Colin Kaepernick.
A number of people were interviewed for the doc. I was likely one of many dozens if not hundreds. It didn’t matter if I was a small fry in an ocean of stars. You have to understand what Lee means to me. To a lot of me’s. To a lot of Black people. Lee is one of the great truth tellers, one of the strongest, one of the smartest, the best of us. Of all of us. There are few people left unafraid to talk about the complexities of race. Lee is one of them and he does it with astonishing clarity and skill. As a director, of course. But off camera as well.
Lee knew that I had covered Kaepernick’s protest movement extensively, and the interview focused partly on that, and on other aspects tangential to the former quarterback. Lee was gracious and when the interview concluded extremely thankful. Some people say never meet your heroes. I’m glad I met mine.
I say all of this because actually there are two heroes in this story. One is Lee and the other is Kaepernick. The latter is one of the great sports civil rights leaders we’ve ever seen. Someone who took on the NFL and started a movement.
Which is why the documentary made so much sense. A cinematic legend and groundbreaking player come together to tell a remarkable story.
So what the hell has happened?
Reuters was the first to report that the multi-part documentary series for ESPN Films about Kaepernick will not be released by the network, Lee and ESPN said.
“ESPN, Colin Kaepernick and Spike Lee have collectively decided to no longer proceed with this project as a result of certain creative differences,” ESPN said in a statement.
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