One day after causing a social-media storm with his comments on San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, NBC Sports TV personality Rodney Harrison used a preseason media conference call to make a formal apology to the pro football player.
It all began Tuesday when Harrison spoke to a Houston-area sports station. He was asked about Kaepernick's refusal to stand during national anthems to protest the treatment of minorities in this country. Harrison questioned Kaepernick's race. Kaepernick is bi-racial.
"I tell you this," Harrison said. "I'm a black man. And Colin Kaepernick, he's not black. He cannot understand what I face and what other young black men and black people face, or people of color face, on a every single (day) basis. When you walk in a grocery store, and you might have $2,000 or $3,000 in your pocket and you go up into a Foot Locker and they're looking at you like you about to steal something."
Twitter responses to Harrison were particularly nasty and Harrison issued a few apologies via Twitter.
"I should not have called Colin Kaepernick's race into question during this morning's radio interview. It was a mistake and I apologize," Harrison tweeted.
Then, before Wednesday's news conference could begin, Harrison took the time to issue a statement to a large group of media via conference call.
"I tweeted out an apology yesterday but wanted to use this call to formerly apology to Colin Kaepernick," he said. "I made a mistake and I never should have brought up his race and I want to humbly apologize to him."
