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As NFL training camps opened this week Davante Adams Jersey Elite , complete with interminable speculation about position battles, rookies who might make an impact and what players can or can't do while "The Star-Spangled Banner" is playing, let's remember two players who aren't suiting up.

Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid are good enough to be playing for someone.

That much is beyond debate.

But the league has decided to make an example of them, a clear warning to its employees that only so much social activism will be tolerated even while it feigns a sense of respecting their desire to protest during the national anthem.

If the NFL were really concerned about its players, it wouldn't be denying these two their well-earned right to make a living.

Rest assured, history won't be kind when it looks back on the way Kaepernick and Reid were treated by the NFL.

"Both of those guys are NFL talents. Both of them are quality players that can contribute to a roster and contribute to a team winning. They've proven it," New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson said. "I do think that 100 percent of the reason why they're not on a roster is the other stuff that they're standing for is outweighing the risk a team wants to take to put them on a roster."

Kaepernick and Reid are following the same path as social warriors who came before them.

Muhammad Ali, who was stripped of his heavyweight boxing title and barred from the ring for more than three years after he refused induction into the military during the Vietnam War.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who defiantly stood with their fists in the air on the medal podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics to protest the way black people were 鈥?and still are 鈥?being treated in America.

Ali, Smith and Carlos were vilified at the time.

Now, they're viewed at heroes 鈥?but only after making huge personal, professional and financial sacrifices to stand up for what they believed.

Kaepernick and Reid are making those same sacrifices.

"I do think it's sad and I want those guys to be on teams because I know they're good enough to play," Watson said. "I hate to see them not be employed in the National Football League, where they should be, simply because they decided to protest and bring attention to systemic oppression, police brutality, injustice 鈥?all the things they stated over and over again, which I think are things that we all should be concerned about."

As of Friday, Kaepernick has gone 572 days since his last snap in the NFL. Tellingly enough, he turned in one of his better performances in what might go down as his final game.

On New Year's Day 2017, playing behind a leaky offensive line that left him running for his life (he was sacked five times), Kaepernick completed 17 of 22 passes for 215 yards and a touchdown in San Francisco's 25-23 loss to Seattle. His 122.3 rating was the seventh highest of his 69 career games.

But the NFL would have you believe he's not good enough to play in a league that will employ just under 100 quarterbacks this season, many of them older than Kaepernick (who is still more than three months shy of his 31st birthday, presumably just entering what should be his prime years) and lacking a resume that includes leading his team to the Super Bowl.

Of course Vita Vea Buccaneers Jersey , we all know the real reason Kaepernick has effectively been blacklisted from the league 鈥?his decision to first sit, then kneel during the national anthem throughout the 2016 season, sparking a debate that carried all the way to the White House.

Reid bravely joined Kaepernick in his stoic, symbolic gesture, and carried on the kneeling when his former teammate was sidelined for the entire 2016 season.

For that, he's now paying the price.

Despite being beyond qualified for a spot in the NFL 鈥?26 years old, a former first-round pick, a starter in 69 of 70 games over five years with the 49ers, 10 career interceptions, an average of 65 tackles per season, a Pro Bowler in 2013 鈥?Reid has been deemed unworthy of employment by each and every one of the league's 32 teams.

What makes the treatment of Kaepernick and Reid even more perplexing: The owners and their non-blacklisted players continue to be locked in a back-and-forth squabble over whether protesting during the anthem is a legitimate way to address social injustice in this country.

(Spoiler alert: It is.)

The issue remains a thorn in the league's side, even after Kaepernick and Reid were cast aside.

"Nothing lasts forever, and this is coming close to lasting way too long," Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown groaned.

Before there's any more discussion about sitting or kneeling or staying in the locker room, the players 鈥?all of them, black and white 鈥?should demand justice for Kaepernick and Reid.

While both have filed collusion grievances, the NFL has lots of highly paid lawyers who will surely try to drag this thing out as long as possible, soaking up prime seasons they'll never get back.

But all those players who are lucky enough to have a job, some of whom were just as visible and vocal in their calls for social justice, should be pondering what they can do to help get Kaepernick and Reid back on the field.

Maybe a one-day sickout during training camp. Or kneeling en masse before the first game. Perhaps, as a last resort, they should consider an actual strike.

Like Kaepernick and Reid, they need to be willing to make some huge sacrifices.

After all, they could be next.

Paul Newberry is a sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at pnewberry@ap.org or at pnewberry1963 His work can be found at s://apnews/search/paul%20newberry AP Sports Writers Brett Martel in New Orleans and Joe Kay in Cincinnati contributed to this report. Morris Claiborne was in the middle of a walkthrough practice last summer when he got the call 鈥?finally 鈥?that he was eagerly anticipating.

It was time for his twin daughters to enter the world.

A New York Jets trainer had the cornerback's cellphone and was tasked with letting him know if and when Claiborne's now-wife Jennifer was heading to the hospital.

"I remember I saw the trainer walking on the field and he gave me Authentic Sam Darnold Jersey , like, a look," Claiborne recalled in an interview with The Associated Press at the family's home. "I just ran. I took off running. I grabbed my phone from him and I went to Coach (Todd) Bowles and I was like, 'Coach, it's time,' and he was like, 'All right, congratulations.'

"And I remember just running out of the building and running to the hospital, and when I got up there I just looked at her."

It was July 30, 2017, and Jennifer was 35 weeks along 鈥?two weeks before her scheduled cesarean section. But her water broke while she was watching the couple's two English Bulldogs outside their home. She had to immediately head to Morristown Medical Center, about 2 1/2 miles away.

Meanwhile, Morris zipped from the Jets' training facility in Florham Park to the hospital just over 3 miles away in time to be there to welcome his daughters.

"He came and it all happened within the hour," Jennifer recalled. "It happened so fast, it was scary."

Doctors performed the C-section and first delivered Ma'Kaila, who was quite underweight at 3 pounds, 8 ounces.

Ma'Liah came a few moments later, weighing in at a more robust 4 pounds, 13 ounces.

Ma'Kaila was immediately taken to the neonatal intensive care unit, separated from her sister 鈥?and mother 鈥?for the first time.

"I was asking, 'Is everything OK?'" Morris said. "They were like, 'She's good. Everything's good. It's just that she's underweight 鈥?too underweight.' They wanted to take her back and start feeding her and try to get her to gain some weight."

Ma'Kaila stayed in the NICU for the next two weeks, working up the strength to be sent home to her parents and sister.

Jets' Morris Claiborne is a happy father after his newborn twins gave him a scare last summer.

Full story from @dwaz73: s://t.co/yul7hm1HrG pic.GGqXaXTqvG

鈥?AP NFL (@AP_NFL) June 17, 2018

For Morris Natrell Jamerson Color Rush Jersey , who was entering his first season with the Jets on a one-year, prove-it deal after four years with the Cowboys, it was a whirlwind of anxiety and excitement.

Somehow, he needed to keep his mind focused on football, while also wanting to make sure his wife and daughters had everything they needed while he was working.

"Oh, man," he said, shaking his head. "We'd have meetings early in the morning and we had to stay over at the (players') hotel, but Coach was giving me a little time to come here and stay with (Jennifer and Ma'Liah) instead of going to the hotel. I'd come (home) after meetings. We'd get done around 11 or so and I'd come here, check on her and make sure everything's OK with her and then I'd head up to the hotel for curfew and we'd FaceTime all night."

Claiborne's coaches and teammates never knew of the hectic routine he was keeping throughout the summer.

Playbooks and Pampers.

Meetings and feedings.

Football and baby blankets.

"I don't care if it was 10 minutes, I live so close to the facility that I was running home every single break to check on them and see if everything's OK and then I'd get back to my job," he said. "It was like that for a while, for the whole training camp. ... It was chaos, but it was fun."

Claiborne was in for the biggest surprise of all on Aug. 15 when he arrived home during a short break.

"I was like, 'Babe, come here, look,'" Jennifer called out to him. "I was like, 'Can you watch her real fast?' And I was speaking of Ma'Liah."

But she had brought Ma'Kaila home from the hospital earlier in the day and had both girls in the bed, laying them beside her with a video camera set on record to capture the moment.

"I wasn't expecting to see both of them at all," a wide-eyed Claiborne recalled. "I wasn't ready for it at all. When I walked in, I was so used to seeing her (Ma'Liah) in the bed when I'd come in, and when I saw both of them laying there, my heart just dropped.

"I was like Richard Rodgers Color Rush Jersey , 'Oh, my God.' It really hit me: We've got twins at the house. This is real now."

Ma'Liah and Ma'Kaila are now 10 1/2 months old, healthy and full of personality.

Ma'Liah, according to Jennifer, is the more demanding of the two, and "she's a Daddy's girl." Ma'Kaila is still slightly smaller than her sister, but is more independent 鈥?moving around on her own, playing and feeding herself.

"It gave me a sense of what I'm really playing football for, what I'm really doing it for," said the 28-year-old Claiborne, who re-signed with the Jets on another one-year deal in the offseason. "It's for my family and bringing these two precious little babies into the world, it opened my eyes to a much bigger picture.

"I've really learned that it's not about yourself. Once you have kids, it's about the kids, but I think I got a re-understanding of that once these two babies were born. I enjoy every moment of it."

The family was planning to fly to its home in Dallas over the weekend to join Claiborne's son Morris, who turns 9 in November, and daughter Madicyn, who's 3, for a special Father's Day.

"Having these girls made me understand that I really missed some valuable time with my son, but I was off in college (at LSU) and there was nothing I could really do about that," Claiborne said. "My mindset was on making a way to feed him at that time. Just having them made me realize how much time at this age that I really missed that I would've loved to be there.

"I missed t.