Thank goodness Colin Kaepernick doesn’t play women’s hockey.

(Though, given how desperate he’s been to get back into sports, he’d probably be willing to give it a whirl.)

Because if Kaepernick — who’s perhaps most infamous for kneeling for “The Star-Spangled Banner” before NFL games as a form of protest — had been on the 2026 U.S. women’s hockey team, American viewers may have been robbed of one of the best moments of the Winter Olympics.

Team USA won the gold medal in women’s hockey, beating their archrival  Team Canada in overtime.

“Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world.”

Tonight belongs to USA Women’s Hockey 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/W0OpHOn7od

— espnW (@espnW) February 19, 2026

During the medal ceremony, every American female hockey player was standing, arms linked, and proudly singing the national anthem.

It was a refreshing change of scenery from the usual politics that have seeped into sports — and you can view the moment for yourself below:

USA Women’s Hockey sings the national anthem after defeating Canada for GOLD.

🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/RUw62PYWF3

— American AF 🇺🇸 (@iAnonPatriot) February 19, 2026

It was a wonderfully patriotic scene, punctuated with the gold medals.

It was also a stark reminder that if you represent the U.S. in sports, it’s really easy to be beloved.

1. Win.
2. Don’t denigrate the country or its traditions.

It’s a lesson that Team USA women’s soccer would do well to heed.

You see, while the NFL has largely rebounded from Kaepernick’s anthem protests in 2016 (it’s virtually non-existent in the league now, after every team had some sort of anthem message to convey back then), the U.S. women’s national soccer team has carried on this “tradition.”

In turn, those athletes, like retired U.S. women’s soccer standout and social justice activist Megan Rapinoe, have become persona non grata to the general public.

That’s the difference between protest as performance and patriotism as posture — one divides, the other unites.

When the puck dropped in the gold medal game, nobody cared about hashtags or culture wars. They cared about grit, execution, and whether Team USA could outlast Canada in overtime. They did. And when the anthem played, the Americans sang — not because someone forced them to, but because they wanted to.

That authenticity is impossible to fake and even harder to resent.

Athletes are free to say what they wish, of course. But if you’re wearing the crest of the United States on your chest, the formula for widespread admiration isn’t complicated: Win with excellence. Represent with pride.

The 2026 U.S. women’s hockey team reminded the country that sports can still offer moments that transcend politics — and for a few minutes on the medal stand, that felt like victory enough.

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