Ex-Green Beret Nate Boyer writes open letter to Trump, Kaepernick, NFL, 'every single American'

Boyer, who played briefly with the Seahawks, previously convinced Kaepernick to kneel instead of sit for the anthem

Nate Boyer, a former U.S. Army Green Beret who spent the 2015 preseason as a long snapper for the Seahawks, last year convinced Colin Kaepernick to kneel instead of sit for the national anthem.

More than a year later, Boyer has written an open letter, as told to ESPN.com's Nick Wagoner, to President Donald Trump, who has been outspoken on the issue of players "disrespecting the flag"; Kaepernick, who has been a free agent since the spring; a league that is trying to balance the players' right to peacefully protest while not alienating fans; and to a nation divided.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dear Every Single American,

Every. Single. American. Including President Trump, Colin Kaepernick, and my brothers in arms overseas who are wondering, "what in the hell is going on back there?" I'm sitting in the same chair, in the same apartment that I sat in almost a year ago when I wrote an open letter to Colin Kaepernick. I was hurt when I saw him sitting on the bench during the national anthem, but I'm much more hurt now. Not by him, not by where we're at now with the protests, but by us.

Simply put, it seems like we just hate each other; and that is far more painful to me than any protest, or demonstration, or rally, or tweet. We're told to pick a side, there's a line drawn in the sand "are you with us or against us?" It's just not who we are, or at least who we're supposed to be; we're supposed to be better than that, we're Americans. This doesn't even seem to be about right or wrong, but more about right or left.

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