Colin Kaepernick wore Fidel Castro shirts and pig-cop socks and the left called him a hero.
Jaxson Dart shook the president's hand and his own teammate tried to make him pay for it publicly.
A Super Bowl champion just reminded both of them what a real teammate looks like.
The Kaepernick Comparison That Tells You Everything
The left couldn't help themselves.
The moment Dart walked off that stage in Suffern, New York, they started drawing the comparison.
Kaepernick kneeled on the field and got blackballed, they said. Dart will get praised for doing the exact same thing.
These people aren't serious.
One player knelt during the national anthem, wore socks depicting police officers as pigs, and put on a Fidel Castro shirt in an NFL locker room.
The other introduced the President of the United States at a rally in the state where he plays football.
Those are not the same thing.
They are not even in the same universe.
But Abdul Carter didn't need the left's permission to pile on.
He did it himself – reposting the video on X with "Thought this s— was AI, what we doing man."
Twenty-two million people saw it before he deleted it.
Jerome Bettis Didn't Need Twenty-Two Million Views
Lawrence Tynes called it what it was.
"The locker room is a sacred place because it brings together everyone from all walks of life and beliefs for one common goal," the former Giants kicker wrote on X. "Calling a teammate out publicly for his political views and to get attention is nasty work."
Nasty work.
Two words that cut right through the noise.
Then Jerome Bettis said the same thing with more grace.
"You don't have to agree. And that's the one thing," Bettis told Fox News Digital. "You don't agree with your teammate, but you got to find a way to work with them."
Bettis played twelve seasons in the NFL – 1993 to 2005 – and said politics never once blew up a locker room during his career.
https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/2059469671703671049?s=20
He knows exactly why it's different now.
"Everyone's picking sides and this and that and now you hate the other guy's side. And that was never the case in politics 20 years ago."
A Hall of Famer. Twelve seasons. Never once made a teammate choose between his quarterback and his politics.
Carter couldn't make it through his first full offseason without making it about himself.
Trump Called It Right There on Stage
Here's the part the media keeps burying.
Trump didn't just shake Dart's hand and move on.
He called him out in front of the crowd at Rockland Community College.
"Jaxson, do you think you could play against women OK? Do you think you'd have any problem? I don't think so," Trump said, joking about the quarterback's build.
"He's this beautiful guy,” he added. “He's got legs like tree trunks."
The crowd loved it. Dart grinned.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2057912525593760066?s=20
Two Americans having a good time at a rally.
That's the scene Carter looked at and decided needed a public takedown.
Carter eventually posted that he and Dart had spoken "as Men" and were good.
That's how it should have started.
The Left politicized every jersey, every handshake, and every public appearance an athlete makes.
Carter handed them exactly what they wanted – a viral moment, a manufactured locker room crisis, and 22 million views of a young quarterback being made to feel ashamed for honoring his president.
That's five days Carter can't get back.
Sources:
- Ryan Canfield, "Super Bowl champion Jerome Bettis has message for Jaxson Dart, Abdul Carter after Trump rally controversy," Fox News, May 27, 2026.
- "Giants' Abdul Carter and Jaxson Dart Squash Potential Locker Room Rift over Trump Event Appearance," OutKick, May 23, 2026.
- "Stop Comparing Jaxson Dart's New York Trump Rally Speech to Colin Kaepernick's Activism," OutKick, May 23, 2026.
- "Nasty Work: Giants Legend Fires Back at Abdul Carter's Criticism of Jaxson Dart Hosting Donald Trump," EssentiallySports, May 23, 2026.