Hours after saying Colin Kaepernick is "not black," NBC Sports NFL analyst and former Chargers and Patriots safety Rodney Harrison has apologized for his comments.

Kaepernick has come under fire in recent days for his decision to sit during the national anthem.

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," the 49ers quarterback said Sunday.

On Tuesday morning, Harrison was the latest person to weigh in on the matter.

"I tell you this, I'm a black man. And Colin Kaepernick -- he's not black," Harrison said on iHeartRadio. "He cannot understand what I face and what other young black men and black people face, or people of color face, on a every single (day) basis. When you walk in a grocery store, and you might have $2,000 or $3,000 in your pocket and you go up in to a Foot Locker and they're looking at you like you about to steal something. You know, I don't think he faces those type of things that we face on a daily basis.

Harrison added: "I'm not saying he has to be black, but I'm saying, his heart is in the right place, but even with what he's doing, he still doesn't understand the injustices as a black man, or people of color, that's what I'm saying."

Worth pointing out: Kaepernick is biracial -- his father was black, his mother was white. He was adopted by Rick and Teresa Kaepernick, a white couple who raised him in central California, but that doesn't change his ethnicity.

But it doesn't sound like Harrison was saying Kaepernick wasn't black enough, but that he legitimately had no idea Kaepernick was a minority who has dealt with racism throughout his life.

"I mean, I've had times where one of my roommates was moving out of a house in college and because we were the only black people in that neighborhood, the cops got called and all of us had guns drawn on us. I mean, came in the house without knocking, guns drawn, on one of my teammates and roommates," Kaepernick said. "So I have experienced this. People close to me have experienced this. This isn't something that's a one-off case here, a one-off case there. This has become habitual, it's become a habit. It's something that needs to be addressed."


Harrison's explanation didn't satisfy everyone.

This is a complex and layered isaue, one neither suited for or resolved through 140 characters. Meanwhile, what this means for Kaepernick's future with the 49ers remains unclear. After Friday's preseason game, coach Chip Kelly told reporters that "It's not my right to tell him not to do something, that's his right as a citizen," and added that "There's never been a conversation about cutting Colin Kaepernick."

That said, Kaepernick hasn't played well since the 2013 season, and it wouldn't be a surprise if he wasn't on the 49ers' roster to open the season for no other reason than he hasn't come close to returning to the form that helped the team to the Super Bowl.