Terrell Owens has backed Colin Kaepernick for bringing "awareness" to certain issues by making his US anthem protest.
Speaking to Newstalk's Ger Gilroy at Web Summit in Lisbon, the 42-year-old wide receiver who last played for the Seattle Seahawks in 2012, shared his thoughts on Kaepernick's method of protesting racism and oppression in the United States.
"He brought awareness to the situation I think. When you talk about oppression and racism, it's an uncomfortable topic for a lot of people. So for him, I think he's gone on record to say it's not disrespect to America, but some of the things that are going on in America," said Owens.
"I think that was probably like the best thing that I got from that just listening over the months of the dialogue and the narratives of 'should he have done it', 'why he's doing it'. But again, he's brought about awareness to the situation."
Speaking about situations during his own career, Owens also talked about the benefits of social media platforms for athletes to give them a way to put across their own narrative when countering those created by the media and other sources.
"When a situation arises, especially with me, there were a number of situations on a couple of different teams. When you have the media saying one thing and you have your team-mates saying one thing and you have the fans thinking one thing, these platform today will enable a player - anybody who's going through something - to really voice their opinion and really give the fans the real inside scoop.
"There's a saying that there's always three sides to a story: your side, my side and there's always the truth. And so with these platforms today that are being provided, it gives any player that outlet to speak on whatever that topic is."
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