Last season Colin Kaepernick's jersey was on clearance racks following the loss of his starting job to Blaine freaking Gabbert:
As of Monday, following his ongoing protest during the National Anthem, and it's now the No. 1 selling jersey on the NFL Shop. According to Darren Rovell, Kaepernick moved more gear over the past seven days than he did in the previous eight months combined:
While these sales do frequently fluctuate, it's still impressive to note the second-life of jersey purchases spurred by the protests of a backup quarterback. Kaepernick tops newly named Eagles starting QB Carson Wentz, as well as newly minted Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, both of whom, as incoming rookies, have uniforms that couldn't have previously been owned by non-omniscient fans.
That being said, these sales may indicate a more modest bump than you might think (they were certainly smaller than I thought) Since a) most people probably already have the jerseys of the players they want, and b) these jerseys aren't cheap.
What a difference a year makes. It's extremely unlikely that the Kaep sales resurgence is being driven by people buying them to burn them.
