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.
Colin Kaepernick
There's a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality.
Most people don't want to change. They're comfortable and set in their ways. But in order to change, you have to be able to agitate people at times. And I think that's something that's very necessary for us to improve as a country.
I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.
People don't realize what's really going on in this country. There are a lot things that are going on that are unjust. People aren't being held accountable for. And that's something that needs to change. That's something that this country stands for: freedom, liberty and justice for all.
I'll never take the easy way out.
To me, tattoos are a way of people being able to express themselves and have other people look at them and get a little insight into who they are, without ever even saying a word to them.
All my life, I've had these flashbacks, these dreams, nightmares, daymares, like visions, where I relive certain plays. Only the bad plays. I see them over and over, as if somebody's rewinding a tape and forcing me to watch.
I'm going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed.
I'm going to speak the truth when I'm asked about it.
As far as jeans and shirts, I rock a lot of different things.
This stand wasn't because I feel like I'm being put down in any kind of way. This is because I'm seeing things happen to people that don't have a voice: people that don't have a platform to talk and have their voices heard and affect change. So I'm in the position where I can do that, and I'm going to do that for people that can't.
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.
There are a lot of details to running that I never even thought about. I just went out and ran. I think I can be faster. I think I can be quicker.
All my tattoos, they've been thought out, thought over, been a work in progress for at least a year before I've got them. So I'm not walking into a tattoo shop, picking tattoos off a wall. It's something that means something to me. It's something that I believe in.
Sometimes, when things are going really well, I feel like I've already seen things - it's the flashback feeling in a good way. Like I'm watching a rerun, because I've studied this defense and know what comes next. Now, that is a good feeling, when your mind is working fast because you've studied, and you realize, 'I've seen this before.'
I don't believe in pressure. The pressure is not being prepared for what you want to do.
To me, I'm going out there focusing on competing, not worrying about cardio or anything like that.
If you're going to do something, you're going to do it to be the best.
You have to be able to do everything as a quarterback, and that's not necessarily taking care of your job but making sure you're preparing everyone else to go out and play well. And make sure you have them in the right mindset when they step on the field.
I never felt that I was supposed to be white. Or black, either. My parents just wanted to let me be who I needed to be.
I'm going out to play, and to play to win.
I realize that men and women of the military go out and sacrifice their lives and put their selves 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.
I was not going to let people tell me what I'm capable of.
Feelings aren't going to help me win a game.
To me, when people say, 'Oh, you're a freak athlete,' it's bittersweet. It's a huge compliment to say, 'O.K., you have physical abilities that are kind of above and beyond.' But at the same time, I feel like it diminishes the mental side of the game.
The NFL is a performance-based business, so you should have to perform to earn some of your money. At the same time, I realize that my success isn't just because of what I do out there.
I don't watch too much TV when it comes to sports or news or things like that.
I'm not incapable of going through things.
I think, between the tattoos, the way I dress, the way I talk, people don't think it should go together with a franchise quarterback or someone that's leading the team or representing the organization.
People can talk all they want; that doesn't affect how I go about my business.
Once I get into the locker room, I turn on stuff to get me hyped up. Mainly, it's a lot of rap music.
Unless you're being carted off, you should be on the field.
It was just something - I didn't agree with what the flag was representing at this time, and you know, if you look at the original picture where people addressed it, I was trying to sit behind the coolers and out of the way, 'cause I didn't want to interrupt anybody else's right to stand and hold attention to the flag.
If I got a football scholarship, I was going to be a football player.
It is funny to me that because I can run, because I'm athletic, people tend to see that as my only asset.
I don't look like my high school self anymore. I feel like I look more like an adult now.
I have great teammates around me who make plays.
Mental health, for me, is doing everything I can to help this team win. Sitting around not doing anything isn't something I've been too big on since I was young.
In the heat of the battle, it's always different than when you go back and look at it on film.
Whatever the offense dictates to allow me doing what I or this offense needs to do to win games, I'm going to do it.
I think the biggest part of my game that's underestimated is the mental part of it.
I love America.
I have great respect for the men and women that have fought for this country. I have family, I have friends that have gone and fought for this country. And they fight for freedom, they fight for the people, they fight for liberty and justice, for everyone.
Nobody cares if you're black, white, straight, gay, Christian, Jewish, whatever it may be. When you step on that field, you're a member, in my case, the 49ers. That's your job, your occupation.
My parents told me from the time I can remember that, 'Yeah, you're adopted. But this is your family.' I can remember my mom, she tells me this story: when I was little, I was looking at her, and I was like, 'Why isn't my skin the same color as yours?' She was like, 'Oh, you're adopted, but I wish I had pretty brown skin like you.'
The SFPD has had a lot of issues, and I think one of the issues that needs to be addressed is the racist text messages that have been passed back and forth between PD members, not only talking about the community, but also talking about colleagues that work in the same department as them.
I refuse to take shortcuts.
I think that's something that's hard for this country to address, is what the real issues are and coming to the point where we can admit that these are issues. Once we admit that, we can deal with it, we can fix them, and we can make this country and these communities a better place.
I have a very high expectation for everything I do. And when I go out and compete, I expect myself to make every play.
