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Rick and Teresa Kaepernick had buried two sons with heart defects before they adopted a five-week-old boy from Milwaukee in 1987. The family left Wisconsin when he was four for Turlock, in California's Central Valley, where he carried a 4.0 average and was nominated for all-state honors in three sports in a single year. Scouts liked him best as a pitcher — the Cubs took him in the 43rd round — and baseball programs offered scholarships. Exactly one football program did. He signed with Nevada and left as the first quarterback in Division I history to pass for 10,000 yards and rush for 4,000 in a career. San Francisco drafted him 36th overall in 2011. Eighteen months later he was starting a Super Bowl.
He had been sitting through the anthem for two games before anyone noticed. On August 26, 2016, a reporter did. 'I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,' he said — he was protesting police violence against Black Americans. Nate Boyer, a former Green Beret and NFL long snapper, wrote him an open letter, then met him in a hotel lobby and suggested that kneeling would read as more respectful than sitting. On September 1, in San Diego, Kaepernick knelt. Players across the league followed.
He said he was not protesting the flag or the military — 'I have great respect for men and women that have fought for this country' — and Boyer, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, agreed kneeling was respectful. Millions of Americans rejected the distinction. A Reuters/Ipsos poll that September found 72 percent calling the protest unpatriotic. Veterans and fans said plainly that the anthem belonged to the dead and that kneeling through it took something from them. Boyer's own summary: you do not get to choose how people perceive things. He opted out of his contract on March 3, 2017. No team signed him. In October he filed a grievance alleging the owners had colluded to keep him out. The NFL settled with him and Eric Reid in February 2019 under a confidentiality agreement. Nothing was admitted and nothing was found.
He has not played in the NFL since the 2016 season. In November 2019 the league organized a workout for him in Atlanta. He rejected its terms 30 minutes beforehand and threw at a nearby high school instead, for scouts from seven teams. What he built instead was Know Your Rights Camp, founded in 2016 with Nessa Diab, and a publishing imprint. Nike made him the face of a campaign in 2018 and its stock reached a record close within two weeks. Amnesty International and Harvard gave him medals. In 2020 Roger Goodell said he wished the league had listened sooner. An anonymous NFL executive called him a traitor. Both readings are still in circulation. The verdict is not in.
Lifespan
Colin Kaepernick's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.
Notable works
-
Know Your Rights Camp
company
Free youth seminars on legal rights and self-empowerment, co-founded with Nessa Diab 2016 -
Nike — Believe in Something
other
The line ran: believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything 2018 -
Kaepernick Publishing
company
Founded February 2020 2020 -
Abolition for the People
book
Thirty essays on police and prison abolition, published with Medium 2020 -
Colin in Black & White
television
Six-part Netflix series on his adolescence, co-created with Ava DuVernay 2021 -
I Color Myself Different
book
A children's book, published with Scholastic 2022
Life in brief
with age at each point- November 3, 1987 aged 0 Born in Milwaukee and placed for adoption at five weeks Rick and Teresa Kaepernick had already lost two sons to heart defects.
- February 2006 aged 18 Signs with Nevada, the only school to offer him a football scholarship Baseball programs had offered several. He wanted to play football.
- April 29, 2011 aged 23 San Francisco trades up to draft him 36th overall He left Nevada as the first Division I quarterback with 10,000 passing and 4,000 rushing yards.
- January 12, 2013 aged 25 Runs for 181 yards against Green Bay, a record for a quarterback The previous mark, 173, belonged to Michael Vick.
- February 3, 2013 aged 25 Loses Super Bowl XLVII to Baltimore, 34 to 31 He threw for 302 yards and ran for a touchdown.
- August 26, 2016 aged 28 A reporter notices him sitting during the anthem He had sat through the two previous preseason games without anyone remarking on it.
- September 1, 2016 aged 28 Kneels for the first time, after Nate Boyer suggests it Boyer, a former Green Beret, had written him an open letter. Eric Reid knelt beside him in San Diego.
- March 3, 2017 aged 29 Opts out of his 49ers contract He has not played in the NFL since.
- February 15, 2019 aged 31 Settles his collusion grievance with the NFL and withdraws it The terms were confidential. Nothing was admitted and no finding was made. Eric Reid settled as well.
