Background

Colin Rand Kaepernick was born on November 3, 1987, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was just a few weeks old when he was adopted by Rick and Teresa Kaepernick, who already had two children of their own but had lost two other babies not long after birth because of heart defects.

Kaepernick's biological mother, Heidi Russo, was 19 when he was born. Faced with the prospect of raising her son on her own (Kaepernick's biological father fled as soon as he discovered Russo was pregnant), she had spent much of her pregnancy debating whether she should put her baby up for adoption. After meeting the Kaepernicks, who had been introduced to her through a common friend, she decided to give her young child up.

As white parents of a bi-racial child, the Kaepernicks often received stares or curious comments. At school, classmates told Colin that it was impossible for the Kaepernicks to be his parents.

"We've always been really open about the adoption, and we were always very open about the skin colors," Teresa Kaepernick told The New York Times in 2010. "We pointed it out as a positive, and he saw his difference and was comfortable with it."

Education

When he was eight years old, Kaepernick began playing youth football as a defensive end and punter. At age nine, he was the starting quarterback on his youth team, and he completed his first pass for a long touchdown. A 4.0 GPA student at John H. Pitman High School in Turlock, California, Kaepernick played football, basketball and baseball and was nominated for All-State selection in all three sports his senior year. He was the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Central California Conference in football, leading his school to its first-ever playoff victory. In basketball, he was a first-team all CCC selection at forward and led his 16th-ranked team to a near upset of #1 ranked Oak Ridge High School in the opening round of playoffs. In that game, Kaepernick scored 34 points but future NBA player Ryan Anderson of Oak Ridge scored 50 points to lead his team to a victory. He graduated high school in 2006.

Kaepernick received most of his high school accolades as a baseball pitcher. He received several scholarship offers in that sport but he wanted to play college football. The University of Nevada was the only school to offer him a football scholarship and Kaepernick signed with them in February 2006.

Career

It was only after a tryout at a camp put on by the University of Nevada, Reno, that Kaepernick showed enough to warrant a scholarship, and he subsequently enrolled at the school in the fall of 2007. Recruited to play safety, Kaepernick stepped in to play QB in the fifth game of his freshman year, when the team's starter went out with an injury against Fresno State. Throwing for 384 yards and four touchdowns, Kaepernick never relinquished the starting role and finished the year with 19 touchdowns.

Fast and strong, Kaepernick put up gaudy numbers during his four years playing for the Wolf Pack. He set several school records and became the first quarterback in the history of Division I FBS to pass for more than 10,000 yards and rush for more than 4,000 yards.

While concerns about Kaepernick's throwing accuracy still hovered around him, the San Francisco 49ers selected the quarterback in the second round of the 2011 NFL draft.

After serving as a backup throughout his rookie season to the team's longtime starter, Alex Smith, Kaepernick took over as the team's No. 1 quarterback in 2012, after Smith was forced to sit out late in the year as a result of a concussion.

As he had done in college, Kaepernick quickly adapted to the new competition, dazzling 49er fans and coaches with his unmatched athleticism. After the second-year QB led the club to several big wins, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh named the young player his permanent starting quarterback. Because the team had come within several plays of going to the Super Bowl just a year before, and because Smith had recently garnered one of the league's premier QB ratings, the decision was a controversial one.

But Kaepernick shut out the noise. As the wins mounted, Kaepernick's celebrity grew, even his well-tattooed arms gained notoriety. In his first postseason start, he dominated Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, rushing for 181 yards to a set a new NFL single game record for a quarterback. After defeating the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC championship game, Kaepernick and the 49ers fell to Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens at Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans.

Kaepernick opened the 2013 season on a strong note, passing for 412 yards and three touchdowns. The 49ers went on to notch a 12-4 record and earn a playoff berth, although this time the season ended with a close loss to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC championship game.

Despite more standout moments from their franchise QB, the 49ers slipped to an 8-8 mark in 2014. The wheels then completely came off in 2015, with Kaepernick losing his starting job before being sidelined for the final month-plus with a shoulder injury. After the season, his desire to be traded to another team went unfulfilled.

Kaepernick became embroiled in a thorny issue when he refused to stand for the national anthem before a preseason game in late August 2016.

"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 afterward in an interview. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way." He added that he would continue to sit during the national anthem until seeing "significant change" for minorities.

Over the course of the season, Kaepernick continued to draw attention for his refusal to stand for the anthem, drawing both support and condemnation from fellow NFL players, politicians and celebrities. On the field, he delivered a solid performance, throwing 16 touchdowns against four interceptions and rushing for 468 yards, though the team went just 1-10 during the games he started. At the conclusion of the season, he became a free agent.

Kaepernick remained a man without a team as the 2017 NFL season began. Meanwhile, his own quiet form of protest had expanded into something much larger, with several players on each NFL team making a point of kneeling during the anthem, and athletes from other sports demonstrating their support as well. The issue became a hot-button political topic, with U.S. President Donald Trump weighing in by calling for kneeling NFL players to be fired during a September rally in Alabama.

On October 15, 2017, Kaepernick filed a grievance against NFL owners for collusion. The filing stated that the NFL and its owners "have colluded to deprive Mr. Kaepernick of employment rights in retaliation for Mr. Kaepernick's leadership and advocacy for equality and social justice and his bringing awareness to peculiar institutions still undermining racial equality in the United States."

On August 30, 2018, an arbitrator denied the NFL's request to dismiss Kaepernick's grievance, indicating that the quarterback presented sufficient evidence to support his collusion claims. As a result, several prominent owners and coaches were expected to be called to testify during the 2018 NFL season.

On September 3, 2018, Nike announced that Kaepernick as the face of their "Just Do It" 30th-anniversary campaign. The ad featured a close-up of his face with the phrase "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything." Nike received immediate backlash for featuring the controversial quarterback with people even burning their Nike gear.

Achievements

• 

  Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback for the National Football League's San Francisco 49ers from 2011 to 2016, became known for protesting injustice by refusing to stand for the national anthem.
  
  On December 3, Kaepernick was honored with the Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award at the ACLU of Southern California's annual Bill of Rights dinner. The following day, he was revealed to be a finalist for TIME's Person of the Year designation. Although he did not win — Time honored "The Silence Breakers," women who came forward to share experiences of sexual harassment — Kaepernick soon earned more recognition as the recipient of Sports Illustrated's Muhammad Ali Legacy Award, given to former athletes and sports figures who embody the ideals of sportsmanship, leadership and philanthropy as vehicles for changing the world.

Religion

Kaepernick was baptized Methodist, confirmed Lutheran, and attended a Baptist church during his college years. Kaepernick spoke about his faith saying, "I think God guides me through every day and helps me take the right steps and has helped me to get to where I'm at." Kaepernick has multiple tattoos about his faith. His right arm features a scroll with the Bible verse Psalm 18:39 written on it. Tattooed under the scroll are praying hands with the phrase "To God The Glory" written on them. To the left of both the scroll and praying hands is the word "Faith" written vertically. His left arm features a Christian cross with the words "Heaven Sent" on it referring to Jesus Christ. Written above and below the cross is the phrase "God Will Guide Me". Written to the left and right of the cross is the Bible verse Psalm 27:3.

Politics

In the 49ers third preseason game of the 2016 season, Kaepernick was noticed sitting down during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as opposed to the tradition of standing. During a post-game interview, he explained his position stating, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder", referencing a series of events that led to the Black Lives Matter movement and adding that he would continue to protest until he feels like "(the American flag) represents what it's supposed to represent". In the 49ers' fourth and final preseason game of 2016, Kaepernick opted to kneel during the U.S. national anthem rather than sit as he did in their previous games. He explained his decision to switch was an attempt to show more respect to former and current U.S. military members while still protesting during the anthem after having a conversation with former NFL player and U.S. military veteran Nate Boyer. After the September 2016 police shootings of Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott, Kaepernick commented publicly on the shootings saying, "this is a perfect example of what this is about". Kaepernick went on to kneel during the anthem prior to every 49ers game that season.

Views

After his national anthem protests, Kaepernick pledged to donate one million dollars to "organizations working in oppressed communities." In 2018, Kaepernick announced that he would make the final $100,000 donation of his "Million Dollar Pledge" in the form of $10,000 donations to charities that would be matched by celebrities.

Also in 2016, Kaepernick founded the "Know Your Rights Camp", an organization which holds free seminars to disadvantaged youths to teach them about self-empowerment, American history and legal rights.

Quotations: “People are dying in vain because this country isn’t holding their end of the bargain up as far as, you know, giving freedom and justice and liberty to everybody.”

“How can you stand for the national anthem of a nation that preaches and propagates freedom and justice for all, that’s so unjust to the people living there.”

“With or without the NFL’s platform, I will continue to work for the people because my platform is the people.”

“It’s a touchy subject, ’cause I never want to take it there, where it seems like it’s all about race. But I feel like that’s something that comes along with the territory of being a black quarterback. When you have success – Oh, you’re a freak athlete. Not, Oh, you’re a good quarterback.”

“There’s a social responsibility that we have to be educated on these things, to talk about these things.”

“If we have these real conversations that aren’t comfortable for a lot of people, there’s a better understanding of where both sides are coming from. And if we reach common ground and can understand what everybody is going through, we can really affect change and make sure that everybody is treated equally and has the same freedoms.”

“We have a lot of people that are oppressed. We have a lot of people that aren’t treated equally, aren’t given equal opportunities. Police brutality is a huge thing that needs to be addressed. There are a lot of issues that need to be talked about, need to be brought to life, and we need to fix those.”

“History has proven that there has never been a period in the history of America that anti-blackness has not been an ever-present terror.”

“People sometimes forget that love is at the root of our resistance.”

“It’s the people’s unbroken love for themselves that motivates me even when faced with dehumanizing norms of a system that leads to the loss of life over simply being black.”

“This is for people that don’t have the voice, and this is for people that are being oppressed and need to have equal opportunities to be successful.”

“You’re going to hurt, yes. You’re going to have tweaks and problems. But you’re a football player; you can play through those.”

“I realize that men and women of the military go out and sacrifice their lives and put themselves in harm’s way for my freedom of speech and my freedoms in this country, and my freedom to take a seat or take a knee, so I have the utmost respect for them, and I think what I did was taken out of context and spun a different way.”

Personality

Kaepernick began following a vegan diet in late 2015.

Kaepernick's family has had a pet African spurred tortoise named Sammy since he was 10 years old.

Physical Characteristics: Height:1.93 m

Weight: 104 kg

Chest: 46” (117 cm)

Waist: 34” (86 cm)

Biceps: 16” (41 cm)

Hair color: Dark Brown

Eye color: Dark Brown

Quotes from others about the person

• GQ released its December issue with Kaepernick on the cover as its "Citizen of the Year." In an accompanying press release, the magazine explained the rationale for its decision:
  
  "He's been vilified by millions and locked out of the NFL — all because he took a knee to protest police brutality," the statement read. "Colin Kaepernick's determined stand puts him in rare company in sports history: Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson — athletes who risked everything to make a difference."

Connections

Kaepernick reportedly started dating radio personality and television host Nessa Diab in July 2015, and officially went public about their relationship in February 2016.

Father:

Rick Kaepernick

Mother:

Teresa Kaepernick

Biological mother:

Heidi Russo

Sister:

Devon Kaepernick

Brother:

Kyle Kaepernick

girlfriend:

Nessa Diab

(born May 6, 1981)

She is an American radio and TV personality and television host.

References

• GQ Magazine (December, 2017) Men of The Year Issue Colin Kaepernick Cover
• Colin Kaepernick: How Taking A Political Stand Has Cost Him Millions and His Job In The NFL
• The Hero In The Helmet: Colin Kaepernick
• Colin Kaepernick: The Inspiring Story of One of Football's Greatest Quarterbacks (Football Biography Books)
• Colin Kaepernick
• Colin Kaepernick