Harbaugh on Kaepernick's protest: 'I don't respect the motivation or the action'

Former San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh kick-started Colin Kaepernick's NFL career, but he isn't standing behind his former quarterback's decision not to rise for the national anthem.

"I acknowledge his right to do that, but I don't respect the motivation or the action," Harbaugh, now the head coach at Michigan, said Monday, according to Pro Football Talk's Michael David Smith.

Harbaugh is widely known as a patriotic person, so perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that he feels strongly about the customs surrounding the anthem.

By saying he doesn't respect Kaepernick's motivation - specifically, that people of color face unjust discrimination in the U.S. - Harbaugh may have opened a larger can of worms.