A well-known NFL partner canceled a five-figure sponsorship for Nate Boyer’s MVP foundation last August after its legal team learned he had met Colin Kaepernick during the 2016 anthem-protest controversy.
The withdrawal came after MVP had already spent thousands preparing a season-long college football tour, with Boyer saying the company stopped responding before finally citing the Kaepernick connection.
Boyer said he was shocked that a 9-year-old meeting still carried consequences, because he viewed his role as an attempt to foster unity rather than endorse division.
That meeting helped shape Kaepernick’s shift from sitting to kneeling during the anthem, with Boyer arguing then that kneeling could preserve the protest while showing respect.
The episode underscores how the backlash from Kaepernick’s 2016 protest still affects people tied to it, even as Boyer says he hopes history judges the act as patriotic.