If You're Going to San Francisco (1996)

Does Nick Bosa actually have anything to say?

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I.

Mario Guerendo emigrated to the United States in 1996 from the Central African Republic, one of the world’s poorest nations, in search of a better life. Guerendo studied engineering at a college in Indianapolis, got married, built a career as an executive in supply-chain management, and had a son who starred in both track and football, earning a scholarship at the University of Wisconsin before getting drafted in the fourth round last spring by the San Francisco 49ers.

On Sunday night, Isaac Guerendo ran for 85 yards and his first career touchdown in the 49ers’ win over Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night football. He then did a brief interview, along with two teammates, on the NBC postgame show, and in the midst of that segment, another teammate, Nick Bosa, briefly crashed the scene wearing a white hat emblazoned with gold letters that were kind of difficult to see unless you squinted. Bosa then quickly sprinted back off-screen. And while the hat’s words may not have been obscured on a television screen, the message was clear. The hat read, Make America Great Again.

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II.

After the game, in a press conference, Bosa appeared before the media while wearing an entirely different hat. Asked about the MAGA hat, he demurred, saying only that this was “an important time” and that he felt slightly more comfortable sharing his political leanings than he did in the past. But as the podcast host and commentator Bomani Jones noted, no one asked Bosa why this was such an important time. No one asked him what kind of statement he was trying to make, or why he felt more comfortable displaying his political leanings in public at this moment—a moment when the campaign he supports is hitting new heights of xenophobia and hate nearly every day. No one asked why Bosa felt comfortable publicly supporting a campaign in which the candidate himself has repeatedly demonized immigrants and referred to countries like the one Mario Guerendo hailed from as “shitholes,” and who once questioned why America should accept immigrants from those countries at all. Bosa did not explain why he feels comfortable supporting a campaign whose surrogate declared, during a chilling Madison Square Garden rally, that, “America is for Americans and Americans only.”

Instead, as Bomani Jones said—and I encourage you to watch the entire segment below—Bosa donned the symbol of that campaign, branded himself in its image on national television, and then shied away from actually explaining himself. Which is the exact opposite of what Colin Kaepernick did all those years ago, engaging in a public act of protest directed at a specific cause—which, at the time, prompted a younger Bosa to declare Kaepernick a “clown” before apologizing and vowing to open his mind to new ideas.

“I think me being here (San Francisco) is even better for me as a person, because I don't think there's anywhere, any city, that you could really be in that would help you grow as much as this one will,” Bosa told reporters in 2019. “I'm going to be surrounded with people of all different kinds, so I'm going to grow as a person. I'm going to be on my own. I'm going to grow up, I'm gonna learn a lot of new things. It's exciting."

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III.

Nick Bosa seems like an otherwise affable guy who is well-liked by his teammates, and has found a part-time home in a part of the country that largely doesn’t share his political leanings. That’s kind of the ideal of America—just as the Guerendo family’s story is the ideal of the American dream—and I admire him for at least embracing his circumstances and maybe not always saying everything he wanted to say.

But, given what he did the other night, I would honestly like to know what he believes he’s learned since arriving in San Francisco. How much has he tried to live up to the ideals he set for himself back in 2019? Has he bothered to listen at all? Has being surrounded by people of different kinds actually changed him? And if it has changed him in any way, how does he defend continuing to advertise a movement that directly marginalizes and disrespects so many of his teammates?

If you’re going to wear the hat, explain why you’re wearing the hat; don’t just don the hat and then sprint away from its consequences. And if you’re incapable of explaining it, then maybe you haven’t really grown up at all.

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