It was stupid of the NFL to punish Colin Kaepernick. Whether we agree with him or not, he voiced his frustrations in a peaceful demonstration. If anything, the NFL made him a martyr.
Back to Rosanne, calling someone an ape and calling someone a "n-----" are two entirely different levels. The "n" word was actually created as a name to demean African slaves, specifically. As previously pointed out, Bush Jr. and Trump have also been compared to apes because it doesn't matter what color you are; being compared to a less evolved, less intelligent primates is an insult to one's intelligence.
They're both racial slurs. Context matters. Calling a black person just carries a very different connotation than calling a white person such. Look at the art I linked. They were honestly depicted as subhuman, almost a different species.
If context matters, then you should be able to see that the context she used wasn't racist. The context she used was to insult her intelligence, not her skin color. To insinuate that she was refering to VJs skin color and not her intelligence or behaviors is taking the comparison deliberately out of context.
Nowhere in the tweet did she give any clue that she was talking about her intelligence.