The national football-watching consciousness had invested so much energy in Colin Kaepernick as the Afro’d civil rights protestor, social justice warrior, and objet d’hate that we’d utterly forgotten about the football player he used to be.
No, not the unfocused, ineffective backup who seemed to be “Office Space”-ing his way through a final year in San Francisco. The 6’4″ Terminator enveloped in sinew and tattoo ink, with a breathtaking arm swivel-mounted to one of the most athletically gifted bodies ever stationed under center. The same player who came off the bench to relieve a guy with a 104.1 passer rating and never sat back down. The quarterback who repeatedly ran up against Aaron Rodgers in the postseason and made him look obsolete.
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Throughout 2016, we’ve seen Kaepernick shake off more of the rust, put back on more of the muscle, make more of the plays we used to see him make and fewer of the errors he never used to make. In the final quarter of the 49ers’ 31-24 loss to the Miami Dolphins, we were treated to our first sustained look at the juggernaut reborn.
Kaepernick finished with a 63 percent completion rate, 296 yards, and three touchdowns. He also tucked the ball away and slashed through the defense 10 times for 113 yards, reminding us all of how defenses used to respond to his skill set like a frozen-in-terror #MannequinChallenge. In fact, if it weren’t for the massive Afro puffing out from underneath the nape of his helmet, he might have been mistaken for another legendary 49ers dual threat:
The author of that Tweet, Armando Salguero, is the same one who called Kaepernick an “unrepentant hypocrite” just two days ago in what might be 2016’s rawest and realest sports column. Salguero told me on-air Sunday morning that “the gloves came off” when Kaepernick dissembled about wearing Castro on his shirt, but Kaepernick actually engaged with Salguero’s critique and offered a strong defense of his beliefs.
For a time, it seemed as though Kaep’s wokeness waxed as his ability waned; many noted his headline-grabbing national anthem protest was the first time in ages anybody had paid attention to him. But just as Kaepernick is willing not just to provoke controversy but defend his beliefs against those he offends, he’s now showing that kind of resolve as a player who will go toe to toe with his opponents until the last tick of the clock to get a win. It looked like he’d done just that against one of the league’s hottest teams—until Ndamukong Suh collapsed him just short of the goal line on Sunday.
Kaepernick’s future in San Francisco couldn’t be foggier: He has a player option on his contract, but will he want to hang around? If general manager Trent Baalke is run out of town, will Chip Kelly hang on to his job? Even if so, are Kaep’s on-field performances convincing Kelly he’s the dual-threat quarterback who can finally make Kelly look as smart as he looked in Oregon?
It’s impossible to tell—but the taciturn kid who used to arrive at the stadium in a hat and headphones is now holding court while draped in Malcolm X memorabilia. And now he’s once again as terrifying to defenses and electrifying to fans as he used to be.
That’s something we can all stand up and salute.
