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The Perilous Fight
The defining and uncompromising memoir from Super Bowl quarterback and renowned Civil Right activist, Colin Kaepernick.
On September 1, 2016, Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem, but the world has never fully understood the whole story. Not the “why.” Not what it cost. Not what it took to become the man who was ready for that moment. That story begins in Turlock, California, where Kaepernick, a Black kid adopted into a white family, spent his earliest years navigating an identity the world around him didn't always know how to hold. Everything that connected him to who he truly was—his Blackness, his culture, his sense of self—was met with resistance. Sports became his refuge and his proving ground. On the field, his talent could not be questioned, minimized, or taken from him. It was the one space that was entirely his. And what that space produced was extraordinary: a quarterback whose arm and instincts would carry him to the Super Bowl and into the history books.
When Kaepernick knelt, he was not acting on impulse. He was acting on years of becoming, of absorbing, reckoning, and refusing to look away. In response, the NFL blackballed him, the country revealed its true self, and the man who had spent his whole life earning his place chose, deliberately, to risk all of it for something larger than himself.
But in the ten years since he took a knee, the questions his protest raised about race, power, identity, and the courage it takes to fight for a more equitable world have not gone away. They are the questions of our time. They are the questions this book answers. In The Perilous Fight, Kaepernick delivers his story with the same unflinching conviction that defined the moment the world watched. Equal parts memoir and manifesto, it traces the off-the-field battles that turned a single act of protest into a movement that changed American sports and culture forever. This is the story of a man who became someone the moment demanded. It is a story about identity, sacrifice, and the cost of courage. And it is, ultimately, a story about all of us and the future we are still fighting to build.
On September 1, 2016, Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem, but the world has never fully understood the whole story. Not the “why.” Not what it cost. Not what it took to become the man who was ready for that moment. That story begins in Turlock, California, where Kaepernick, a Black kid adopted into a white family, spent his earliest years navigating an identity the world around him didn't always know how to hold. Everything that connected him to who he truly was—his Blackness, his culture, his sense of self—was met with resistance. Sports became his refuge and his proving ground. On the field, his talent could not be questioned, minimized, or taken from him. It was the one space that was entirely his. And what that space produced was extraordinary: a quarterback whose arm and instincts would carry him to the Super Bowl and into the history books.
When Kaepernick knelt, he was not acting on impulse. He was acting on years of becoming, of absorbing, reckoning, and refusing to look away. In response, the NFL blackballed him, the country revealed its true self, and the man who had spent his whole life earning his place chose, deliberately, to risk all of it for something larger than himself.
But in the ten years since he took a knee, the questions his protest raised about race, power, identity, and the courage it takes to fight for a more equitable world have not gone away. They are the questions of our time. They are the questions this book answers. In The Perilous Fight, Kaepernick delivers his story with the same unflinching conviction that defined the moment the world watched. Equal parts memoir and manifesto, it traces the off-the-field battles that turned a single act of protest into a movement that changed American sports and culture forever. This is the story of a man who became someone the moment demanded. It is a story about identity, sacrifice, and the cost of courage. And it is, ultimately, a story about all of us and the future we are still fighting to build.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published September 15, 2026
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September 14, 2026
ARC REVIEW ~ Mᴏsᴛ ᴅᴇꜰɪɴɪᴛᴇʟʏ ᴀ Mᴜsᴛ Rᴇᴀᴅ!!!!
Hear me when I say I could not put this book down. Instead of writing a review I thought it would be more impactful to share what you’ll find inside the book. Keep in mind these statements are from an ARC. My copy may contain information or stories that did not make it to the finished copy.
Inside the book:
* Colin shares what it was like growing up Black in a white adoptive family and struggling to feel understood.
* He recalls a racist encounter with white boys that nearly cost him his life. Yet he never told his parents what happened.
*Growing up he admired Allen Iverson for having the courage to be unapologetically himself.
* At the NFL Combine, Colin says he felt like he was standing on a slave auction block. He describes the enormous control NFL coaches, executives and owners have over players…After reading this I will never see the NFL the same again!
* Reading became part of his activism. The more he read and studied, the more he understood how deep root and systemic racism is.
* Colin explains what finally led him to protest during the national anthem. He breaks the entire story down! If you’ve ever wanted to know what happened it’s all in this book.
* He shares how his life changed after taking a knee…Y’all, they did Colin so wrong!
* He shares his side of the Ray Lewis controversy involving his wife Nessa.
* Colin continued training for years after being forced to walk away from football because he still loved the sport. Also, he didn’t want to send the message that a person can lose it all by standing up for Black people.
* I was happy to learn that he sued the NFL. They settled out of court.
* He takes us on his travels through Ghana and Egypt as he deepens his understanding of history, race and the slave trade.
* We learn what went on behind the scenes of his iconic Nike “Dream Crazy” campaign.
* We also learn why he walked away from a major Gucci deal!
* He writes about his relationship with Jay-Z and how he declined Jay-Z’s invitation to kneel onstage because he didn’t want to become a mere prop. He shares his disappointment over Jay-Z’s NFL partnership and demanded his name not be used to support it.
* In the end Colin brings his story full circle as he becomes a fiercely protective father to his daughter Nyla.
Thanks to Legacy Lit for gifting me an advance readers copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Hear me when I say I could not put this book down. Instead of writing a review I thought it would be more impactful to share what you’ll find inside the book. Keep in mind these statements are from an ARC. My copy may contain information or stories that did not make it to the finished copy.
Inside the book:
* Colin shares what it was like growing up Black in a white adoptive family and struggling to feel understood.
* He recalls a racist encounter with white boys that nearly cost him his life. Yet he never told his parents what happened.
*Growing up he admired Allen Iverson for having the courage to be unapologetically himself.
* At the NFL Combine, Colin says he felt like he was standing on a slave auction block. He describes the enormous control NFL coaches, executives and owners have over players…After reading this I will never see the NFL the same again!
* Reading became part of his activism. The more he read and studied, the more he understood how deep root and systemic racism is.
* Colin explains what finally led him to protest during the national anthem. He breaks the entire story down! If you’ve ever wanted to know what happened it’s all in this book.
* He shares how his life changed after taking a knee…Y’all, they did Colin so wrong!
* He shares his side of the Ray Lewis controversy involving his wife Nessa.
* Colin continued training for years after being forced to walk away from football because he still loved the sport. Also, he didn’t want to send the message that a person can lose it all by standing up for Black people.
* I was happy to learn that he sued the NFL. They settled out of court.
* He takes us on his travels through Ghana and Egypt as he deepens his understanding of history, race and the slave trade.
* We learn what went on behind the scenes of his iconic Nike “Dream Crazy” campaign.
* We also learn why he walked away from a major Gucci deal!
* He writes about his relationship with Jay-Z and how he declined Jay-Z’s invitation to kneel onstage because he didn’t want to become a mere prop. He shares his disappointment over Jay-Z’s NFL partnership and demanded his name not be used to support it.
* In the end Colin brings his story full circle as he becomes a fiercely protective father to his daughter Nyla.
Thanks to Legacy Lit for gifting me an advance readers copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
Admittedly, I’m just a curious bystander from his hometown who won an advance copy of the book and decided to give it a shot. Here are my takeaways:
-You don’t have to know anything about football to follow and enjoy it. It was interesting to see what the journey looks like from childhood standout to NFL pro. And while there is some discussion of things like gameplay and stats, those themes don’t dominate. His struggle for identity and self-actualization drives the narrative.
-You don’t have to know anything about his activism or politics to enjoy it. It reads more like a memoir than a manifesto, and even in the thick of his most controversial era, his tone is more personal than preachy. You don’t have to agree with him or his actions to understand his motivations and appreciate the power of his conviction.
-The writing style feels very authentic. I was expecting something ghostwritten—something stylistically polished and thoroughly edited. But there’s plenty of personal voice here. He mixes sharp, sophisticated, poignant prose with off-the-cuff, conversational thoughts in a way I found refreshing.
Whether you came to know him as a hometown hero, NFL player, or outspoken activist, there’s something of interest for you here... Whether you love him or hate him, you can’t deny that this man stands on business.
One final note: I hate to let the truth get in the way of a good story, but the anecdote he uses to paint our town as some racist hotbed of KKK activity was completely disingenuous. (Apparently, some kook from the backwoods 30 miles north of here tried to hold a Klan picnic down by the river in a neighboring town… IN 1983.) That did not happen here, did not happen in his lifetime, and isn’t representative of the people here.
-You don’t have to know anything about football to follow and enjoy it. It was interesting to see what the journey looks like from childhood standout to NFL pro. And while there is some discussion of things like gameplay and stats, those themes don’t dominate. His struggle for identity and self-actualization drives the narrative.
-You don’t have to know anything about his activism or politics to enjoy it. It reads more like a memoir than a manifesto, and even in the thick of his most controversial era, his tone is more personal than preachy. You don’t have to agree with him or his actions to understand his motivations and appreciate the power of his conviction.
-The writing style feels very authentic. I was expecting something ghostwritten—something stylistically polished and thoroughly edited. But there’s plenty of personal voice here. He mixes sharp, sophisticated, poignant prose with off-the-cuff, conversational thoughts in a way I found refreshing.
Whether you came to know him as a hometown hero, NFL player, or outspoken activist, there’s something of interest for you here... Whether you love him or hate him, you can’t deny that this man stands on business.
One final note: I hate to let the truth get in the way of a good story, but the anecdote he uses to paint our town as some racist hotbed of KKK activity was completely disingenuous. (Apparently, some kook from the backwoods 30 miles north of here tried to hold a Klan picnic down by the river in a neighboring town… IN 1983.) That did not happen here, did not happen in his lifetime, and isn’t representative of the people here.
September 8, 2026
Where to Read: available September 15, 2026. Order your copy here: www.hachettebookgroup.com or https://amzn.to/4yhCjGT
RAVING REVIEW: For almost a decade, there’s been one image that’s followed Colin Kaepernick everywhere. Kneeling on an NFL sideline during the national anthem. THE PERILOUS FIGHT gives him enough room to tell the much larger story surrounding that moment. Kaepernick goes back to his childhood, his relationship with race and identity, his obsessive love of sports, his rise through college football, the Super Bowl years, his growing political awareness, his activism, and the life he’s continued building since leaving the NFL.
That perspective is what makes the memoir so compelling. Kaepernick doesn't begin with the controversy everyone remembers. He begins as a kid in Turlock, California, growing up Black in a white adoptive family and in a community where he was often one of very few Black children around him. Some of these early experiences are understandably painful, including encounters with racism that he didn't even feel comfortable discussing at home. They're essential to understanding how he learned to protect parts of himself.
His parents are presented with considerably more complexity than a simple good-or-bad judgment would allow. Kaepernick understands that he was loved, supported, and given opportunities, while also recognizing that his family didn't always understand parts of his identity. His memories of wanting cornrows, embracing Black athletes and culture, and trying to figure out where he fit in give the opening chapters a surprisingly intimate quality.
Allen Iverson and Randy Moss become particularly important figures for him during those years. Kaepernick saw athletes who were talented enough that nobody could ignore them and unapologetically Black enough that they didn't appear interested in making everyone around them comfortable. Long before he had the understanding to explain why that mattered, he recognized something in them that he wanted for himself.
Sports gave him somewhere to put all of that energy. Baseball, basketball, and football each occupy real space in the memoir rather than serving as a quick montage before the NFL. Kaepernick was a terrific baseball player and could easily have continued down that path. Football gradually became the place where his combination of intelligence, competitiveness, and unusual athletic ability fit best.
His road to the University of Nevada is one of the book's most enjoyable stretches because it captures how uncertain his future once was. He wasn't always the obvious quarterback prospect schools were fighting over. When Nevada coach Chris Ault finally offered him the chance to play Division I football, Kaepernick describes the relief of knowing all of that work had led somewhere.
Those chapters also make it obvious how much he simply loves football. It's easy for everything that happened later to overshadow that part of his story, but THE PERILOUS FIGHT never does. Kaepernick loves competition, loves learning how offenses work, loves challenging himself, and loves figuring out how to beat whatever is in front of him. By the time Nevada developed into a nationally relevant program, you understand how much of his identity has been built around getting better every day.
Kaepernick recounts being drafted by San Francisco, learning behind Alex Smith and eventually taking over as the 49ers' starting quarterback under Jim Harbaugh. Those seasons include a Super Bowl appearance, another trip to the NFC Championship Game, and some remarkable individual performances, including his record-setting rushing game against Green Bay. They're also some of the best football sections in the book because Kaepernick can explain the sport without making it inaccessible. He talks about routes, coaches, defenses, contracts, injuries, and locker-room dynamics with the perspective of someone who spent his life thinking about the game.
THE PERILOUS FIGHT gradually begins connecting that athlete to the activist people know. Meeting Nessa becomes enormously important, not simply because of their relationship but because she challenges him intellectually. She gives him THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X, which leads him toward James Baldwin, Frantz Fanon, Huey P. Newton, and other writers who gave him new ways of understanding experiences he'd carried for years. I loved that Kaepernick presents this as an evolution rather than pretending he emerged from childhood with every part of him already formed. He looks back at earlier experiences with new information and realizes that things he once accepted without understanding now look completely different.
Football and that awakening eventually collide during the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Kaepernick, recovering from multiple injuries while watching the killings of Black Americans dominate the news, finds his frustration keeps growing. By the time he first remains seated during the national anthem for the first time, the decision never feels like the beginning of this story. It feels like the latest step in something that has been building across most of his life.
The details surrounding the protest are fascinating, especially because years of repetition have tried to simplify some of them. Kaepernick initially sat during the anthem before teammate Eric Reid suggested kneeling instead, letting them stay with the team while maintaining the protest. Their conversations about what they were trying to say give one of modern sports' most famous images a much more personal context.
THE PERILOUS FIGHT captures the speed with which Kaepernick stopped being discussed primarily as a quarterback and became a national symbol. Teammates, fans, politicians, journalists, veterans, activists, and strangers suddenly had strong opinions about him, often without ever speaking to him. He recounts support alongside hostility, private conversations alongside public reactions, and the surreal experience of watching people debate his intentions everywhere he looked. What really strengthens this portion of the memoir is that Kaepernick doesn't treat kneeling as an accomplishment. He was already thinking about how to turn his concerns into something. The Know Your Rights Camps grew from conversations about helping young people in Black and Brown communities understand their rights, health, education, and opportunities, eventually expanding into multiple cities and reaching thousands of young people.
That helps bridge the book into life beyond football. Kaepernick discusses donating money to organizations doing the work to help communities, supporting legal-defense efforts, creating educational resources, and building programs designed to last beyond a news cycle. There's a consistent desire throughout these chapters to turn attention into something more than just allowing the protest itself to become the end of the story.
His attempts to return to the NFL receive attention as well, and they belong here because football never stopped mattering to him. Kaepernick continued training, participated in workouts, and pursued opportunities with several organizations years after his final regular-season game. Whether he's describing the unusual 2019 workout organized by the league or later training sessions with NFL receivers, his determination to remain ready sounds remarkably similar to the kid earlier in the book who refused to stop working until somebody gave him a chance.
Eventually, though, his work with Ava DuVernay on COLIN IN BLACK & WHITE gives him another way to tell his story, and his experiences with publishing lead to the creation of Kaepernick Publishing. He becomes increasingly interested in who gets to tell stories, who controls them, and how Black and Brown writers can have greater ownership over their work. That makes THE PERILOUS FIGHT itself feel like another extension of that moment. Kaepernick spent years being explained by broadcasters, columnists, politicians, and people arguing online. Here, he has a book of his own to connect experiences that were often reduced to headlines, and the book benefits enormously from having enough space to do it.
The closing chapters bring the story to a much more personal experience. Kaepernick writes about marrying Nessa, becoming a father, and discovering how parenthood changed his understanding of responsibility. His concerns about education, safety, and equality stop being just intellectual questions when he begins thinking about the world his daughter will grow up in.
It also brings the memoir back toward childhood. Kaepernick begins THE PERILOUS FIGHT as a kid trying to understand himself while surrounded by people who couldn't explain the world he was experiencing. He ends it thinking about what kind of world the next generation deserves and how adults can give children the knowledge, security, and opportunities they need much earlier. That balance makes the book such a rewarding read. The quarterback part matters; the child in Turlock matters. The son trying to understand his family matters. The young man discovering Black history matters. The activist matters. The businessman, publisher, husband, and father matter too. None of those versions replaces the others.
THE PERILOUS FIGHT allows all of them to exist in the same story. You don't have to be invested in football to appreciate it, although fans will find plenty here as well, and you don't need to approach it as purely political either. At its best, it's a memoir about a person figuring out who he is, what he believes, and what he's willing to do once those two things become impossible to separate. The kneeling is part of that story, but after reading the book, it feels less like the moment that created Colin Kaepernick and more like the moment the rest of the world finally started paying attention.
Please visit https://linktr.ee/overlyhonestr for more reviews.
You can follow me on Letterboxd, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. You can also find my social media accounts on most platforms by searching for 'Overly Honest Reviews'.
I’m always happy to hear from my readers; please don't hesitate to say hello or send me any questions about movies.
RAVING REVIEW: For almost a decade, there’s been one image that’s followed Colin Kaepernick everywhere. Kneeling on an NFL sideline during the national anthem. THE PERILOUS FIGHT gives him enough room to tell the much larger story surrounding that moment. Kaepernick goes back to his childhood, his relationship with race and identity, his obsessive love of sports, his rise through college football, the Super Bowl years, his growing political awareness, his activism, and the life he’s continued building since leaving the NFL.
That perspective is what makes the memoir so compelling. Kaepernick doesn't begin with the controversy everyone remembers. He begins as a kid in Turlock, California, growing up Black in a white adoptive family and in a community where he was often one of very few Black children around him. Some of these early experiences are understandably painful, including encounters with racism that he didn't even feel comfortable discussing at home. They're essential to understanding how he learned to protect parts of himself.
His parents are presented with considerably more complexity than a simple good-or-bad judgment would allow. Kaepernick understands that he was loved, supported, and given opportunities, while also recognizing that his family didn't always understand parts of his identity. His memories of wanting cornrows, embracing Black athletes and culture, and trying to figure out where he fit in give the opening chapters a surprisingly intimate quality.
Allen Iverson and Randy Moss become particularly important figures for him during those years. Kaepernick saw athletes who were talented enough that nobody could ignore them and unapologetically Black enough that they didn't appear interested in making everyone around them comfortable. Long before he had the understanding to explain why that mattered, he recognized something in them that he wanted for himself.
Sports gave him somewhere to put all of that energy. Baseball, basketball, and football each occupy real space in the memoir rather than serving as a quick montage before the NFL. Kaepernick was a terrific baseball player and could easily have continued down that path. Football gradually became the place where his combination of intelligence, competitiveness, and unusual athletic ability fit best.
His road to the University of Nevada is one of the book's most enjoyable stretches because it captures how uncertain his future once was. He wasn't always the obvious quarterback prospect schools were fighting over. When Nevada coach Chris Ault finally offered him the chance to play Division I football, Kaepernick describes the relief of knowing all of that work had led somewhere.
Those chapters also make it obvious how much he simply loves football. It's easy for everything that happened later to overshadow that part of his story, but THE PERILOUS FIGHT never does. Kaepernick loves competition, loves learning how offenses work, loves challenging himself, and loves figuring out how to beat whatever is in front of him. By the time Nevada developed into a nationally relevant program, you understand how much of his identity has been built around getting better every day.
Kaepernick recounts being drafted by San Francisco, learning behind Alex Smith and eventually taking over as the 49ers' starting quarterback under Jim Harbaugh. Those seasons include a Super Bowl appearance, another trip to the NFC Championship Game, and some remarkable individual performances, including his record-setting rushing game against Green Bay. They're also some of the best football sections in the book because Kaepernick can explain the sport without making it inaccessible. He talks about routes, coaches, defenses, contracts, injuries, and locker-room dynamics with the perspective of someone who spent his life thinking about the game.
THE PERILOUS FIGHT gradually begins connecting that athlete to the activist people know. Meeting Nessa becomes enormously important, not simply because of their relationship but because she challenges him intellectually. She gives him THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X, which leads him toward James Baldwin, Frantz Fanon, Huey P. Newton, and other writers who gave him new ways of understanding experiences he'd carried for years. I loved that Kaepernick presents this as an evolution rather than pretending he emerged from childhood with every part of him already formed. He looks back at earlier experiences with new information and realizes that things he once accepted without understanding now look completely different.
Football and that awakening eventually collide during the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Kaepernick, recovering from multiple injuries while watching the killings of Black Americans dominate the news, finds his frustration keeps growing. By the time he first remains seated during the national anthem for the first time, the decision never feels like the beginning of this story. It feels like the latest step in something that has been building across most of his life.
The details surrounding the protest are fascinating, especially because years of repetition have tried to simplify some of them. Kaepernick initially sat during the anthem before teammate Eric Reid suggested kneeling instead, letting them stay with the team while maintaining the protest. Their conversations about what they were trying to say give one of modern sports' most famous images a much more personal context.
THE PERILOUS FIGHT captures the speed with which Kaepernick stopped being discussed primarily as a quarterback and became a national symbol. Teammates, fans, politicians, journalists, veterans, activists, and strangers suddenly had strong opinions about him, often without ever speaking to him. He recounts support alongside hostility, private conversations alongside public reactions, and the surreal experience of watching people debate his intentions everywhere he looked. What really strengthens this portion of the memoir is that Kaepernick doesn't treat kneeling as an accomplishment. He was already thinking about how to turn his concerns into something. The Know Your Rights Camps grew from conversations about helping young people in Black and Brown communities understand their rights, health, education, and opportunities, eventually expanding into multiple cities and reaching thousands of young people.
That helps bridge the book into life beyond football. Kaepernick discusses donating money to organizations doing the work to help communities, supporting legal-defense efforts, creating educational resources, and building programs designed to last beyond a news cycle. There's a consistent desire throughout these chapters to turn attention into something more than just allowing the protest itself to become the end of the story.
His attempts to return to the NFL receive attention as well, and they belong here because football never stopped mattering to him. Kaepernick continued training, participated in workouts, and pursued opportunities with several organizations years after his final regular-season game. Whether he's describing the unusual 2019 workout organized by the league or later training sessions with NFL receivers, his determination to remain ready sounds remarkably similar to the kid earlier in the book who refused to stop working until somebody gave him a chance.
Eventually, though, his work with Ava DuVernay on COLIN IN BLACK & WHITE gives him another way to tell his story, and his experiences with publishing lead to the creation of Kaepernick Publishing. He becomes increasingly interested in who gets to tell stories, who controls them, and how Black and Brown writers can have greater ownership over their work. That makes THE PERILOUS FIGHT itself feel like another extension of that moment. Kaepernick spent years being explained by broadcasters, columnists, politicians, and people arguing online. Here, he has a book of his own to connect experiences that were often reduced to headlines, and the book benefits enormously from having enough space to do it.
The closing chapters bring the story to a much more personal experience. Kaepernick writes about marrying Nessa, becoming a father, and discovering how parenthood changed his understanding of responsibility. His concerns about education, safety, and equality stop being just intellectual questions when he begins thinking about the world his daughter will grow up in.
It also brings the memoir back toward childhood. Kaepernick begins THE PERILOUS FIGHT as a kid trying to understand himself while surrounded by people who couldn't explain the world he was experiencing. He ends it thinking about what kind of world the next generation deserves and how adults can give children the knowledge, security, and opportunities they need much earlier. That balance makes the book such a rewarding read. The quarterback part matters; the child in Turlock matters. The son trying to understand his family matters. The young man discovering Black history matters. The activist matters. The businessman, publisher, husband, and father matter too. None of those versions replaces the others.
THE PERILOUS FIGHT allows all of them to exist in the same story. You don't have to be invested in football to appreciate it, although fans will find plenty here as well, and you don't need to approach it as purely political either. At its best, it's a memoir about a person figuring out who he is, what he believes, and what he's willing to do once those two things become impossible to separate. The kneeling is part of that story, but after reading the book, it feels less like the moment that created Colin Kaepernick and more like the moment the rest of the world finally started paying attention.
Please visit https://linktr.ee/overlyhonestr for more reviews.
You can follow me on Letterboxd, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. You can also find my social media accounts on most platforms by searching for 'Overly Honest Reviews'.
I’m always happy to hear from my readers; please don't hesitate to say hello or send me any questions about movies.
September 16, 2026
KAEPERNICK’S LONG-AWAITED AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The early chapters of this 2026 book recount his early life: “I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on November 3, 1987. My biological mother, Heidi Russo, was 19 and broke when she got pregnant with me. She didn’t believe she was in a position to care for me, so she gave me up for adoption. My parents, Rick and Teresa Kaepernick, adopted me … when I was five weeks old. Rick and Teresa had … a son … and a daughter… [They] were seeking a white child, but they said they were open to adopting a child of another race. When I became available, they stepped up.” (Pg. 4)
“We lived in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin… a midsize city of … overwhelmingly white and hardworking folks… [When] I was preschool age, we moved to Turlock, California. My father [was]… a vice president for … one of the largest cheese manufacturers in the world, while my mother was a nurse… the town was a sea of whiteness… there was often a degree of racial animus… I was the only Black boy in my kindergarten class. There was also one Black girl.” (Pg. 5) He began the book with a shocking incident at age 8 of three older white kids trying to tie him to a tree. (Pg. 1-3)
He admired Allen Iverson and Randy Moss. “I think I was drawn to them because … they were fighting for their Blackness---just as I was fighting for my Blackness in Turlock… my mother called Iverson a ‘thug’… [Iverson’s] extreme Blackness was the real issue in my house. Black culture was the issue… At eight, I was quickly developing a distaste for the status quo.” (Pg. 8-9)
He played Pop Warner. “The next season I got moved to quarterback. My father was now the head coach. I’m pretty sure he had something to do with it.” (Pg. 14) But “baseball season is when I would truly shine… The people weren’t as friendly to me as they were in football… I came to understand why: Baseball was overwhelmingly white.” (Pg. 16) After he had his hair braided, his mother said, ‘You look like a thug.’ … I was tired of fighting the hair war… I was now committed to … as much Black culture as I could find in Turlock… I didn’t braid my hair again until I was 28.” (Pg. 22)
He acknowledges, “I also knew that I had my dad in my corner… when engaging in conflicts with these white men, I had my own white man to go talk to them---a white man who was used to negotiating with other white men. If I didn’t have Rick Kaepernick in my corner, I’m not sure I would have made it to the NFL.” (Pg. 30)
When he got a driver’s license, “I had my first encounter with law enforcement… They gave me a ticket because it was four Black boys in a nice car, not because I did something wrong.” (Pg. 31) He recounts other DWB incidents. (Pg. 73-74) He wanted to date Black girls, but his mother kept trying to steer him toward white girls. (Pg. 33) But a Black girl he dated got pregnant, and falsely claimed it was his. It took multiple paternity tests before she would stop accusing him. (Pg. 48-50, 54-57, 60)
The conditions of the NFL draft Combine suggested slavery to him. “As a Black man in that situation, I was sensitive to the ramification of … such demeaning treatment… I was entering a different realm---the business of football." (Pg. 90-91) Although he had a leg injury, “When I got drafted by the Niners, I was floating on top of the world.” (Pg. 105) The NFL lockout in 2011 ‘proved to be beneficial for me… since there were no team practices, I was able to do rehab without anyone noticing that I wasn’t on the field.” (Pg. 106) He recalls, ‘Though Alex [Smith] and I were in competition for the starting job, I felt fortunate that I was battling with someone who was such a great person… During my first two years he was quite helpful to my growth.” (Pg. 127)
Eventually he became the starter, and made it to the Super Bowl. “It really f-----g hurt to lose… My life changed dramatically… leading up to the Super Bowl. I went from a backup quarterback who no one besides hardcore 49ers fans had ever heard of to a Super Bowl starting quarterback … who was recognized almost everywhere.” (Pg. 148) "in 2014, I showed my loyalty to the Niners---but it was becoming clearer… they had no interest in showing loyalty to me... there was considerable bad blood between me and the Niners front office.” (Pg. 158-159)
However, during the 2015 NBA All-Star weekend, he had “the most important moment of my life.. [A female friend] introduced me to a beautiful woman with a warm, kind smile named Nessa…. [who was] doing interviews for BET.” (Pg. 163-164) She gave him a copy of the 'Autobiography of Malcolm X,' which “turned out to be pivotal in my development intellectually. Reading Malcolm opened my eyes to the pervasiveness of white supremacy.” (Pg. 167) “I stopped drinking… During team flights, I’d be … reading a book instead of watching movies or BS’ing with my teammates… I’m reminded of the reaction that former NBA star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf got in the 1990s from his teammates when he started reading books around them… I later published his memoir… through… Kaepernick Publishing.” (Pg. 168) When he suffered a tear in his labrum, “My backup QB, Blaine Gabbert, was inserted into the starting lineup to replace me.” (Pg. 173)
He recounts, "In December 2015, tensions exploded in San Francisco … [over] footage showing the police shooting and killing a 26-year old… Mario Woods.” But his mother was cautious, and he mused, “How could she see this and not be outraged? I mean, she has a Black son. Mario Woods could easily have been me.” (Pg. 174-175) During a preseason game [he was still unable to play], for the first time he remained seated during the National Anthem. “why would I stand to honor the US when I was filled with disgust for the way this nation allows Black people to be brutalized and killed?… I hadn’t given the anthem a second’s thought before I walked out onto the field… but it hit me in that moment that … I didn’t want to stand up while that song was playing.” (Pg. 178-179) He was interviewed after the next preseason game [he could now play], and famously said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color… 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.” he muses, “I had a good sense that white people would be upset… [But] I couldn’t go back to blissful ignorance. I had to do something.” (Pg. 180-181)
Before a practice, Coach Chip Kelly gave Kaepernick five minutes to “explain to the team what I was doing and why… I told my teammates how law enforcement in this country has always been an enemy of Black people, and that the American police force, particularly in the South, was created as a means to monitor, control and punish Black people. I talked about how a straight line can be drawn from the slave patrols that were formed to catch escaped slaves to the establishment of the KKK after emancipation to the modern police forces that patrol American streets today. I told them how the prison industrial complex had been created to profit from the mass incarceration of Black people. When I finished, the room was silent… After I was done, Kelly quickly brought matters back to football.” (Pg. 184-185)
“When I spoke with my Black teammates throughout that season, the majority of them told me that they agreed with me---but they would not say it publicly. I could tell they were afraid. Their silence spoke volumes about how little power professional athletes feel like they have… Players know the team could retaliate and they could lose it all if they stepped out of line. I certainly understood their reluctance.” (Pg. 185)
Before their final preseason game, his teammate Eric Reid asked him, “Where are you trying to go with this?” He added, “One of the things I’m seeing is they’re saying you’re isolating yourself, you’re not being a team player… Are you open to doing something else?” Kaepernick replied, “I’m open to any ideas you have… But … I’m not going to stand.” Reid asked, “Well, what if we take a knee? If we take a knee, we can be up there with the team… I don’t think anyone could take it as being disrespectful. Are you open to that?” Kaepernick said, “I’m good with that. Let’s do it.” (Pg. 187-188)
But then Kaepernick “had to go downstairs and meet with some guy the Niners PR staff had invited in, Nate Boyer… [who] was a retired Green Beret who had played in the NFL briefly… Eric said he would come with me to meet Boyer since we had just decided to take a knee together. We met Boyer … for about 20 minutes… We told him about our plans to take a knee… he said taking a knee made a lot of sense…. When the public address announcer asked everyone to rise… he walked over to us [and said], ‘Hey, I actually took an oath, so I can’t take a knee with y’all… I’m just gonna stand next to you.’ … It felt to me like he was there for the photo op.” (Pg. 186-187) Kaepernick notes, “In the days after the game, I was blown away when I saw Nate Boyer was all over the news… telling the world that taking a knee was his idea… A convenient narrative … made our protest more palatable. No longer was I a freethinking Black man… No, I had a white military veteran give me the path to move forward… I was outraged, incensed.” (Pg. 189)
He summarizes, “The threat of losing money wasn’t going to paralyze me with fear. The previous 18 months had been such an incredible whirlwind for me: I had met the woman of my dreams and was certain I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life, and I has unwittingly instigated a drama that in many ways would define the rest of my life.” (Pg. 191) He noted, "I saw that very few celebrities and people of prominence were willing to come out and really question the police directly… it’s more than a few bad apples… The entire institution needs to be critiqued because… modern policing grew out of the slave patrols of the south.” (Pg. 201)
He reports, “It had become clear to me that the [Niners] organization was going to try to get rid of me. I was holding fast to the protests, and … Other NFL players were kneeling.” (Pg 210) “Blaine Gabbert was named the starting quarterback of the 2016 offense as I tried to make my way back from my surgeries… the Niners had a major incentive to bench me the whole season… If I played and got hurt again, they would have to pay me my injury guarantee… I should add that the Niners didn’t seem interested in winning football games.” (Pg. 209) He adds, “I started 11 of our last 12 games that season. We won only one of those games…” (Pg. 212) “[The Niners] gave me a choice: I could opt out of my contract now, or I could wait until they cut me… if I waited for them to cut me, I’d miss the free agency window to get signed by somebody else…” (Pg. 213)
In 2017, he ‘filed a legal action against the league for collusion… the NFL agreed ... to settle the case in February 2019… the terms of the settlement are bound by a confidentiality agreement---though I can say that the amount was far from making me whole in terms of the salary I lost.” (Pg. 223, 226) Nike approached him to become the face of the ‘Dream Crazy’ campaign… I worked with my team to write the eventual tagline: ‘Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.’… the commercial finally debuted … right at the start of the [2018] NFL season.” (Pg.228-229) He observes, “What I came to understand about human behavior … is that most people are risk averse. Having seen what happened to me, high-profile individuals were likely to shy away from sticking out their necks the way I did… many of the everyday people of color who would be thinking about joining me wouldn’t be in a position economically and structurally to withstand what I’ve experienced.” (Pg. 232-233)
He states, “Since 2016, I’ve made a decision: I don’t watch the NFL anymore… When I inform people of that, some of my supporters say they feel bad because they continue to tune in… Whether to watch the NFL or not is a personal decision … but it also immediately tells me a good amount about the character of the person I’m engaging with.” (Pg. 237)
He explains, “Since I took my last snap … in 2016, I’ve focused on being prepared to return to football. One day a call might come from a team needing a QB… Since 2017, my trainer and I have worked to figure out a plan that would keep me in peak condition without putting myself at risk for injury.” (Pg. 238-239) Of course, He’s also been involved in ‘Know Your Rights’ camps (Pg. 198), a TV miniseries, ‘Colin in Black and White’ (Pg. 243) and his own publishing company (Pg. 245), as well as unsuccessful workouts with the Seattle Seahawks (Pg. 247) and even a proposed workout in front of reps from 32 teams, but they had disputes over cameras and the waiver he had to sign, and his change of location (Pg. 252-261).
The concluding chapter is a heartfelt testimonial about his wife Nessa, and their daughter Nyla. He concludes, “Being Black in American is a perilous fight. I can’t afford to back down… The world needs each of us to be willing to stand up, or sit down, or kneel, to bring about the change we long for.” (Pg. 273) [P.S. - of course, he gives a lot of details about FOOTBALL in the book, too..!]
The early chapters of this 2026 book recount his early life: “I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on November 3, 1987. My biological mother, Heidi Russo, was 19 and broke when she got pregnant with me. She didn’t believe she was in a position to care for me, so she gave me up for adoption. My parents, Rick and Teresa Kaepernick, adopted me … when I was five weeks old. Rick and Teresa had … a son … and a daughter… [They] were seeking a white child, but they said they were open to adopting a child of another race. When I became available, they stepped up.” (Pg. 4)
“We lived in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin… a midsize city of … overwhelmingly white and hardworking folks… [When] I was preschool age, we moved to Turlock, California. My father [was]… a vice president for … one of the largest cheese manufacturers in the world, while my mother was a nurse… the town was a sea of whiteness… there was often a degree of racial animus… I was the only Black boy in my kindergarten class. There was also one Black girl.” (Pg. 5) He began the book with a shocking incident at age 8 of three older white kids trying to tie him to a tree. (Pg. 1-3)
He admired Allen Iverson and Randy Moss. “I think I was drawn to them because … they were fighting for their Blackness---just as I was fighting for my Blackness in Turlock… my mother called Iverson a ‘thug’… [Iverson’s] extreme Blackness was the real issue in my house. Black culture was the issue… At eight, I was quickly developing a distaste for the status quo.” (Pg. 8-9)
He played Pop Warner. “The next season I got moved to quarterback. My father was now the head coach. I’m pretty sure he had something to do with it.” (Pg. 14) But “baseball season is when I would truly shine… The people weren’t as friendly to me as they were in football… I came to understand why: Baseball was overwhelmingly white.” (Pg. 16) After he had his hair braided, his mother said, ‘You look like a thug.’ … I was tired of fighting the hair war… I was now committed to … as much Black culture as I could find in Turlock… I didn’t braid my hair again until I was 28.” (Pg. 22)
He acknowledges, “I also knew that I had my dad in my corner… when engaging in conflicts with these white men, I had my own white man to go talk to them---a white man who was used to negotiating with other white men. If I didn’t have Rick Kaepernick in my corner, I’m not sure I would have made it to the NFL.” (Pg. 30)
When he got a driver’s license, “I had my first encounter with law enforcement… They gave me a ticket because it was four Black boys in a nice car, not because I did something wrong.” (Pg. 31) He recounts other DWB incidents. (Pg. 73-74) He wanted to date Black girls, but his mother kept trying to steer him toward white girls. (Pg. 33) But a Black girl he dated got pregnant, and falsely claimed it was his. It took multiple paternity tests before she would stop accusing him. (Pg. 48-50, 54-57, 60)
The conditions of the NFL draft Combine suggested slavery to him. “As a Black man in that situation, I was sensitive to the ramification of … such demeaning treatment… I was entering a different realm---the business of football." (Pg. 90-91) Although he had a leg injury, “When I got drafted by the Niners, I was floating on top of the world.” (Pg. 105) The NFL lockout in 2011 ‘proved to be beneficial for me… since there were no team practices, I was able to do rehab without anyone noticing that I wasn’t on the field.” (Pg. 106) He recalls, ‘Though Alex [Smith] and I were in competition for the starting job, I felt fortunate that I was battling with someone who was such a great person… During my first two years he was quite helpful to my growth.” (Pg. 127)
Eventually he became the starter, and made it to the Super Bowl. “It really f-----g hurt to lose… My life changed dramatically… leading up to the Super Bowl. I went from a backup quarterback who no one besides hardcore 49ers fans had ever heard of to a Super Bowl starting quarterback … who was recognized almost everywhere.” (Pg. 148) "in 2014, I showed my loyalty to the Niners---but it was becoming clearer… they had no interest in showing loyalty to me... there was considerable bad blood between me and the Niners front office.” (Pg. 158-159)
However, during the 2015 NBA All-Star weekend, he had “the most important moment of my life.. [A female friend] introduced me to a beautiful woman with a warm, kind smile named Nessa…. [who was] doing interviews for BET.” (Pg. 163-164) She gave him a copy of the 'Autobiography of Malcolm X,' which “turned out to be pivotal in my development intellectually. Reading Malcolm opened my eyes to the pervasiveness of white supremacy.” (Pg. 167) “I stopped drinking… During team flights, I’d be … reading a book instead of watching movies or BS’ing with my teammates… I’m reminded of the reaction that former NBA star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf got in the 1990s from his teammates when he started reading books around them… I later published his memoir… through… Kaepernick Publishing.” (Pg. 168) When he suffered a tear in his labrum, “My backup QB, Blaine Gabbert, was inserted into the starting lineup to replace me.” (Pg. 173)
He recounts, "In December 2015, tensions exploded in San Francisco … [over] footage showing the police shooting and killing a 26-year old… Mario Woods.” But his mother was cautious, and he mused, “How could she see this and not be outraged? I mean, she has a Black son. Mario Woods could easily have been me.” (Pg. 174-175) During a preseason game [he was still unable to play], for the first time he remained seated during the National Anthem. “why would I stand to honor the US when I was filled with disgust for the way this nation allows Black people to be brutalized and killed?… I hadn’t given the anthem a second’s thought before I walked out onto the field… but it hit me in that moment that … I didn’t want to stand up while that song was playing.” (Pg. 178-179) He was interviewed after the next preseason game [he could now play], and famously said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color… 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.” he muses, “I had a good sense that white people would be upset… [But] I couldn’t go back to blissful ignorance. I had to do something.” (Pg. 180-181)
Before a practice, Coach Chip Kelly gave Kaepernick five minutes to “explain to the team what I was doing and why… I told my teammates how law enforcement in this country has always been an enemy of Black people, and that the American police force, particularly in the South, was created as a means to monitor, control and punish Black people. I talked about how a straight line can be drawn from the slave patrols that were formed to catch escaped slaves to the establishment of the KKK after emancipation to the modern police forces that patrol American streets today. I told them how the prison industrial complex had been created to profit from the mass incarceration of Black people. When I finished, the room was silent… After I was done, Kelly quickly brought matters back to football.” (Pg. 184-185)
“When I spoke with my Black teammates throughout that season, the majority of them told me that they agreed with me---but they would not say it publicly. I could tell they were afraid. Their silence spoke volumes about how little power professional athletes feel like they have… Players know the team could retaliate and they could lose it all if they stepped out of line. I certainly understood their reluctance.” (Pg. 185)
Before their final preseason game, his teammate Eric Reid asked him, “Where are you trying to go with this?” He added, “One of the things I’m seeing is they’re saying you’re isolating yourself, you’re not being a team player… Are you open to doing something else?” Kaepernick replied, “I’m open to any ideas you have… But … I’m not going to stand.” Reid asked, “Well, what if we take a knee? If we take a knee, we can be up there with the team… I don’t think anyone could take it as being disrespectful. Are you open to that?” Kaepernick said, “I’m good with that. Let’s do it.” (Pg. 187-188)
But then Kaepernick “had to go downstairs and meet with some guy the Niners PR staff had invited in, Nate Boyer… [who] was a retired Green Beret who had played in the NFL briefly… Eric said he would come with me to meet Boyer since we had just decided to take a knee together. We met Boyer … for about 20 minutes… We told him about our plans to take a knee… he said taking a knee made a lot of sense…. When the public address announcer asked everyone to rise… he walked over to us [and said], ‘Hey, I actually took an oath, so I can’t take a knee with y’all… I’m just gonna stand next to you.’ … It felt to me like he was there for the photo op.” (Pg. 186-187) Kaepernick notes, “In the days after the game, I was blown away when I saw Nate Boyer was all over the news… telling the world that taking a knee was his idea… A convenient narrative … made our protest more palatable. No longer was I a freethinking Black man… No, I had a white military veteran give me the path to move forward… I was outraged, incensed.” (Pg. 189)
He summarizes, “The threat of losing money wasn’t going to paralyze me with fear. The previous 18 months had been such an incredible whirlwind for me: I had met the woman of my dreams and was certain I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life, and I has unwittingly instigated a drama that in many ways would define the rest of my life.” (Pg. 191) He noted, "I saw that very few celebrities and people of prominence were willing to come out and really question the police directly… it’s more than a few bad apples… The entire institution needs to be critiqued because… modern policing grew out of the slave patrols of the south.” (Pg. 201)
He reports, “It had become clear to me that the [Niners] organization was going to try to get rid of me. I was holding fast to the protests, and … Other NFL players were kneeling.” (Pg 210) “Blaine Gabbert was named the starting quarterback of the 2016 offense as I tried to make my way back from my surgeries… the Niners had a major incentive to bench me the whole season… If I played and got hurt again, they would have to pay me my injury guarantee… I should add that the Niners didn’t seem interested in winning football games.” (Pg. 209) He adds, “I started 11 of our last 12 games that season. We won only one of those games…” (Pg. 212) “[The Niners] gave me a choice: I could opt out of my contract now, or I could wait until they cut me… if I waited for them to cut me, I’d miss the free agency window to get signed by somebody else…” (Pg. 213)
In 2017, he ‘filed a legal action against the league for collusion… the NFL agreed ... to settle the case in February 2019… the terms of the settlement are bound by a confidentiality agreement---though I can say that the amount was far from making me whole in terms of the salary I lost.” (Pg. 223, 226) Nike approached him to become the face of the ‘Dream Crazy’ campaign… I worked with my team to write the eventual tagline: ‘Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.’… the commercial finally debuted … right at the start of the [2018] NFL season.” (Pg.228-229) He observes, “What I came to understand about human behavior … is that most people are risk averse. Having seen what happened to me, high-profile individuals were likely to shy away from sticking out their necks the way I did… many of the everyday people of color who would be thinking about joining me wouldn’t be in a position economically and structurally to withstand what I’ve experienced.” (Pg. 232-233)
He states, “Since 2016, I’ve made a decision: I don’t watch the NFL anymore… When I inform people of that, some of my supporters say they feel bad because they continue to tune in… Whether to watch the NFL or not is a personal decision … but it also immediately tells me a good amount about the character of the person I’m engaging with.” (Pg. 237)
He explains, “Since I took my last snap … in 2016, I’ve focused on being prepared to return to football. One day a call might come from a team needing a QB… Since 2017, my trainer and I have worked to figure out a plan that would keep me in peak condition without putting myself at risk for injury.” (Pg. 238-239) Of course, He’s also been involved in ‘Know Your Rights’ camps (Pg. 198), a TV miniseries, ‘Colin in Black and White’ (Pg. 243) and his own publishing company (Pg. 245), as well as unsuccessful workouts with the Seattle Seahawks (Pg. 247) and even a proposed workout in front of reps from 32 teams, but they had disputes over cameras and the waiver he had to sign, and his change of location (Pg. 252-261).
The concluding chapter is a heartfelt testimonial about his wife Nessa, and their daughter Nyla. He concludes, “Being Black in American is a perilous fight. I can’t afford to back down… The world needs each of us to be willing to stand up, or sit down, or kneel, to bring about the change we long for.” (Pg. 273) [P.S. - of course, he gives a lot of details about FOOTBALL in the book, too..!]
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Colin Kaepernick is one of my activist heroes, so when I saw The Perilous Fight was coming out I *had* to get a review copy. I wanted that opportunity to read his story as he chose to tell it.
On the other hand, I'm not a football fan—and a lot of his story is centered around football. So reading The Perilous Fight was an interesting journey for me. The football focused sections didn't mean as much to me as they probably will for many Kaepernick fans, but for Kaepernick's story, I realized the football is essential, even if it doesn't speak to me as much as it will to others.
The point I'm getting at is that to appreciate all Kaepernick is doing as an activist, one also needs to recognize his accomplishments as an athlete. Without Kaepernick the athlete, Kaepernick the thinker and activist wouldn't have had access to the public stage in the way he did. Kaepernick was lauded for one exceptional set of skills, but he developed a second set of skills and used them with great purpose, even when that second set of skills undermined—at least in the eyes of some—the respect he'd originally won.
So, in the same way that I want football enthusiasts to embrace the activist Kaepernick, I need to embrace the athlete Kaepernick. Kaepernick isn't one or the other, he's both. And, yes, the sum is greater than its parts.
I appreciate Kaepernick giving me a chance to think and learn alongside him. This was a great read for the non-athlete me. It would also be a great read for any number of athletes I know. The breadth of his thinking and abilties is worth celebrating in more than a single realm.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.
On the other hand, I'm not a football fan—and a lot of his story is centered around football. So reading The Perilous Fight was an interesting journey for me. The football focused sections didn't mean as much to me as they probably will for many Kaepernick fans, but for Kaepernick's story, I realized the football is essential, even if it doesn't speak to me as much as it will to others.
The point I'm getting at is that to appreciate all Kaepernick is doing as an activist, one also needs to recognize his accomplishments as an athlete. Without Kaepernick the athlete, Kaepernick the thinker and activist wouldn't have had access to the public stage in the way he did. Kaepernick was lauded for one exceptional set of skills, but he developed a second set of skills and used them with great purpose, even when that second set of skills undermined—at least in the eyes of some—the respect he'd originally won.
So, in the same way that I want football enthusiasts to embrace the activist Kaepernick, I need to embrace the athlete Kaepernick. Kaepernick isn't one or the other, he's both. And, yes, the sum is greater than its parts.
I appreciate Kaepernick giving me a chance to think and learn alongside him. This was a great read for the non-athlete me. It would also be a great read for any number of athletes I know. The breadth of his thinking and abilties is worth celebrating in more than a single realm.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.
September 17, 2026
This man! I have so much respect. The world needs more Colin Kaepernicks.
I don’t like football at all, and I loved this book. I think anyone who wants to hear Colin’s perspective on his story will like this. He comes across as a very thoughtful, intelligent, astute person. I really appreciated hearing his take on all the events that I saw second-hand in the media during the height of his taking-a-knee fame.
Perhaps the only surprising aspect of this book was his discussion of his parents and family. His tone and messages come across almost as if he is estranged from them now, or very, very distant from them now. I have no idea what their relationship status is *because* he didn’t say. He definitely discusses the difficulties of growing up black in a white family, and he discusses some specific pain points about that. But by the end of the book, the tone is sounding almost like he barely has contact with them anymore, but he didn’t speak to their current level of contact at all.
In fairness, the other surprising-to-me aspect was that he had a 4.5 GPA in high school.
Spoiler: “The perilous fight” is being black in America.
Sidenote: I listened to the audio of this, which was narrated by Kaepernick himself. To my surprise, I had to set the speed about .5 to .35 slower than I normally do for most audiobooks. In other words, Colin was a faster reader than the average audiobook, IMO. As a fairly high volume audiobook consumer, thought this was interesting!
I don’t like football at all, and I loved this book. I think anyone who wants to hear Colin’s perspective on his story will like this. He comes across as a very thoughtful, intelligent, astute person. I really appreciated hearing his take on all the events that I saw second-hand in the media during the height of his taking-a-knee fame.
Perhaps the only surprising aspect of this book was his discussion of his parents and family. His tone and messages come across almost as if he is estranged from them now, or very, very distant from them now. I have no idea what their relationship status is *because* he didn’t say. He definitely discusses the difficulties of growing up black in a white family, and he discusses some specific pain points about that. But by the end of the book, the tone is sounding almost like he barely has contact with them anymore, but he didn’t speak to their current level of contact at all.
In fairness, the other surprising-to-me aspect was that he had a 4.5 GPA in high school.
Spoiler: “The perilous fight” is being black in America.
Sidenote: I listened to the audio of this, which was narrated by Kaepernick himself. To my surprise, I had to set the speed about .5 to .35 slower than I normally do for most audiobooks. In other words, Colin was a faster reader than the average audiobook, IMO. As a fairly high volume audiobook consumer, thought this was interesting!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
As a lifelong San Francisco Forty-Niners fan, I have had a pretty good seat from where to watch what happened with Colin Kaepernick, our former quarterback, a decade ago. I remember when he came in after QB Alex Smith was injured. I remember the excitement of watching him play and reach the Super Bowl. And I remember when he began to kneel in protest of the police violence against Black people.
As an immigrant and person of color, I knew this would have repercussions for him. But I didn't imagine he would get blacklisted out of the league and be in a situation where untalented players got to throw the ball while Colin stayed unemployed. It wasn't fair then, it isn't fair now. They allow violent players, domestic attackers to play, but they wouldn't allow someone who protested peacefully, back in the league.
Here Colin tells us all about his life, and what he has faced the whole time. Racism has followed him everywhere, but even after being basically kicked out of the NFL, Colin has never lost his spirit. I believe Colin has evolved beyond football. I believe that the work he does now is bigger than a football season or a Super Bowl win, and I know that he will be remembered as the brave man who dared to stand up, while kneeling, to one of the biggest corporate machines in the US. A million thanks to Colin and to @netgalley for allowing me to preview this book.
As an immigrant and person of color, I knew this would have repercussions for him. But I didn't imagine he would get blacklisted out of the league and be in a situation where untalented players got to throw the ball while Colin stayed unemployed. It wasn't fair then, it isn't fair now. They allow violent players, domestic attackers to play, but they wouldn't allow someone who protested peacefully, back in the league.
Here Colin tells us all about his life, and what he has faced the whole time. Racism has followed him everywhere, but even after being basically kicked out of the NFL, Colin has never lost his spirit. I believe Colin has evolved beyond football. I believe that the work he does now is bigger than a football season or a Super Bowl win, and I know that he will be remembered as the brave man who dared to stand up, while kneeling, to one of the biggest corporate machines in the US. A million thanks to Colin and to @netgalley for allowing me to preview this book.
September 20, 2026
wow, must read! colin is speaking up again about the behind the scenes systems that uphold the NFL. also got a background on his parents and what it was like being adopted. also learned about some of the hypocritical actions of a certain billionaire rapper and how this rapper used colin's image but really undermined colin's activism.
September 16, 2026
Definitely a man of character, integrity and true to his beliefs. Gained much insight to the world of sports, manipulation, untruths, and all for greed on everyone's behalf. Grateful having the opportunity to read a very good book.
September 20, 2026
I'm gonna make my own football league, with blackjack and hookers (blackjack = no racism) (hookers = treating the players like human beings)... if only it were that easy. Also it's really no surprise the NFL is garbage
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews