There are game changers in the world, and most times they don’t get their flowers while they’re here. So it means something extra that Colin Kaepernick, hero to many and polarizing figure to some, was just named Humanitarian of the Year by the Muhammad Ali Center, one of the highest honors in the nation.
He has spent the last decade, you know this wasn’t a hard call for the committee. The Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards, is the Center’s biggest fundraiser of the year. Now Kaepernick will pick it up on November 7 in Louisville. Same city Ali called home. Because that’s the guy who’d rather lose everything than stay quiet, and that’s exactly why the location fits.
That’s not a coincidence. That’s the point.
Why Colin Kaepernick Was Named Humanitarian of the Year
Ten years ago this month, Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem before an NFL preseason game. He wasn’t trying to start a movement. Colin was trying to say something about police brutality and racial injustice that a lot of people didn’t want to hear.
He said it anyway.
That decision cost him. Cost him a career, honestly, since he hasn’t taken an NFL snap since. But it also turned him into one of the most consequential athletes of his generation, and it’s the exact kind of “principle over convenience” move the Muhammad Ali Center says it’s honoring.
Lonnie Ali, who co-founded the Center and now runs it, put it plainly. Kaepernick stood against racial injustice and committed himself to empowering communities that don’t usually get the spotlight. She drew a direct line from Ali’s willingness to sacrifice everything for his convictions to Kaepernick work.
That’s a heavy comparison. Ali is the guy who gave up his heavyweight title and his freedom rather than go fight a war he didn’t believe in. Putting Kaepernick in that same sentence is the Center saying, out loud, that kneeling on that field belongs in the same conversation as Ali refusing the draft.
I don’t think that’s a stretch. I think it’s overdue.
The Work Behind the Headline
The anthem protest gets all the headlines, understandably. But the award is really about what came after.
Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp has spent years educating and empowering young people, particularly in Black and underserved communities, on everything from legal rights to financial literacy to self-empowerment. That’s the unglamorous, unsponsored, no-cameras-rolling work that actually builds something. Awards shows love a moment. The Muhammad Ali Center is rewarding a body of work.
In his own statement, Kaepernick said receiving the award is an honor precisely because Ali lived his convictions even when it cost him personally, and that platforms exist to serve others, not just the people holding them. He said being recognized in Ali’s name is humbling and, in his words, a responsibility.
That word matters. Responsibility. Not celebration. Not vindication. Responsibility. That’s very on brand for a guy who’s never once tried to make this about himself.
He’s Not the Only One Getting Flowers
Kaepernick headlines the class, but he’s not the whole class. Louisville philanthropists Steve and Amy Trager are receiving the Kentucky Humanitarian Award for their long-running work in education, economic development, and community building across the region.
The Center is also honoring six young adults, all 30 or under, through its Six Core Principles Awards, which recognize confidence, conviction, dedication, giving, respect, and spirituality in action. That group spans the globe, from an entrepreneur in Argentina building accessibility tech, to a New Orleans founder turning recycled glass into coastal restoration material, to a photographer in the Philippines using his work to spotlight ecological crises.
Worth your own deep dive if you’ve got the time. This piece is Colin’s story, but theirs are just as real, so keep an eye out for our full rundown on this year’s honorees once it’s live.
The Bigger Picture
Muhammad Ali built his legacy on refusing to separate who he was from what he stood for. The Muhammad Ali Center has spent over a decade using its Humanitarian Awards to find people carrying that same refusal into the present.
Colin Kaepernick fits that list because he never let his career, his critics, or his silence out of controversy become bigger than what he believed. Ten years after that first knee, the receipts speak for themselves.
The 13th annual Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards take place November 7 in Louisville, Kentucky. Tickets and sponsorship information are available through the Muhammad Ali Center.
