Muhammad Ali lost over three years of his career, his title, and faced federal prison.
Colin Kaepernick got a Nike deal.
But the Muhammad Ali Center just gave Colin Kaepernick one award that put jaws on the floor.
Ali Paid a Real Price. Kaepernick Cashed a Check.
Muhammad Ali refused the Vietnam draft in 1967 and the government came for everything.
They stripped his heavyweight title.
They banned him from boxing for over three years – the prime years of his athletic life.
They convicted him of draft evasion, fined him $10,000, and sentenced him to five years in federal prison.
He didn't get an endorsement deal.
He got handcuffs.
https://twitter.com/Kaepernick7/status/2092680622699692160?s=20
That's what genuine sacrifice for a principle looks like.
Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem in 2016, opted out of his 49ers contract, filed a collusion grievance against the NFL, and collected a confidential settlement.
Then he became a full-time activist who made millions doing it.
The Muhammad Ali Center just decided those two stories are equivalent.
The Castro Defense Nobody Wants to Explain
The Humanitarian of the Year award citation praises Kaepernick for his "advocacy against racial injustice."
"Colin was chosen for his courage to stand against racial injustice and his unwavering commitment to empowering underserved communities," Lonnie Ali, co-founder and president and CEO of the Muhammad Ali Center, said in the announcement. "Like Muhammad, Colin has used his platform to advocate for equality, human dignity, and social change, even when doing so came at significant personal and professional cost."
But in 2016, Kaepernick showed up to a press conference wearing a T-shirt featuring Fidel Castro – the longest-ruling communist dictator in the Western Hemisphere.
When Miami Herald reporter Armando Salguero, a Cuban-American, pressed him on it during a media call before a game in Miami, Kaepernick defended Castro's literacy programs.
"One thing that Fidel Castro did do is they have the highest literacy rate because they invest more in their education system than they do in their prison system," Kaepernick said.
https://twitter.com/TheAthletic/status/2092764278386270580?s=20
Salguero, whose column ran in a city home to the largest Cuban exile population in America, called Kaepernick a "fraud" and an "unrepentant hypocrite" in print.
The Miami crowd that Sunday wasn't confused about what Kaepernick was celebrating.
They booed him loudly every time he touched the field.
The Ali Center either didn't know any of this, didn't care, or decided it was fine.
The Pattern the Ali Center Keeps Repeating
This is not the first time the Muhammad Ali Center swung and missed badly.
In 2022, they gave their Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Now they're giving Humanitarian of the Year to the man who defended Castro to Cuban-American journalists.
There's a pattern here and it has nothing to do with Muhammad Ali's actual legacy.
Ali stood alone in a Houston induction center in 1967 and didn't step forward when his name was called – knowing it meant his title, his career, and possibly his freedom.
He didn't wear the T-shirts of dictators while positioning himself as a human rights champion.
https://twitter.com/HipHopDEMOCRAT/status/2092616334932611517?s=20
He didn't collect settlement checks and rebrand as a philanthropist.
Whatever you think of his politics, that was real.
The Muhammad Ali Center used to honor that kind of courage.
Now they're handing trophies to men who wore police-as-pigs socks and lectured Cuban exiles about literacy rates.
Muhammad Ali deserves better than this from the institution that carries his name.
Sources:
- Simon Kent, "Colin Kaepernick Awarded Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Honor," Breitbart, August 26, 2026.
- Elizabeth Llorente, "Cuban-Americans blast Kaepernick for wearing Castro T-shirt," Fox News, December 2016.
- "Kaepernick booed in Miami for Castro comments," Fox News, November 2016.
- "Ali Stripped Of World Title," Sports Illustrated, April 28, 2020.