The 43rd season of "Saturday Night Live" premiered this Saturday night, with an episode hosted by Ryan Gosling. The musical guest for the evening was Jay-Z, who performed a trio of songs.
The first of those three tracks was "Bam," from his new album 4:44, which he performed alongside Damian Marley. Jay rocked a black No. 7 football jersey during the performance, and for a while one might have thought it was a Mike Vick jersey.
About halfway through the song, however, Jay-Z turned around and it was revealed that the back of the jersey actually read "Colin K," a clear reference to former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Jay Z performing on Saturday Night Live in a Colin Kaepernick jersey pic.twitter.com/44wQUfckqh
— Lakisha Jackson (@LakishaJackson) October 1, 2017
Jay-Z on @nbcsnl. pic.twitter.com/fZtgpSMmpi
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) October 1, 2017
Jay did not call any other attention to the jersey by taking a knee or even talking about it, but he had previously dedicated a song to Kaepernick while performing a recent show in New York, and also reportedly turned down the NFL's offer to perform at halftime of Super Bowl LII.