Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has announced plans to release a memoir detailing his life story a decade after he first took a knee during the national anthem.
Kaepernick, who claims he was blackballed by the league after taking the knee in protest against police brutality and racial inequality, has completed his book ‘The Perilous Fight.’
The book, titled after a lyric in ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ will come out September 15 – almost exactly a full decade after his protest began.
Kaepernick initially announced his plans to write the memoir back in 2020 and has not played in the NFL since 2016.
The quarterback has spent the better part of the last decade as one of the most divisive figures in American sports despite not playing in the NFL.
His decision to protest was hailed as a way to highlight the police deaths and oppression of black people by some. By others, he was villainized, his jersey was burned and he received death threats.
Ex-49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (pictured with wife Nessa) is set to release his memoir
The quarterback (C) has spent the better part of the last decade as one of the most divisive figures in American sports, despite not playing in the NFL since 2016
Kaepernick will drop the book, titled ‘The Perilous Fight’, nearly a decade after he knelt during the American National Anthem – becoming one of the most divisive sports figures in the US
In August 2016, Donald Trump told Kaepernick to ‘find a country that works better for him’ after his national anthem protest.
Kaepernick, who has not played in the NFL since 2016, said in a statement that he wanted to offer context for what led to his taking a knee. Before that, he had remained seated during the anthem.
‘People saw the moment. But they didn’t see the years that made it possible: the questions about who I was; the injustices I could no longer ignore; the voices of those who came before me that I carried into that stadium,’ Kaepernick said in a statement released Tuesday.
‘That journey, from a Black kid navigating an identity the world didn’t always make space for, to an athlete who realized the game was bigger than football, shaped everything. When I took a knee, it wasn’t a sudden act.’
Legacy Lit, the publisher working with Kaepernick, is calling the book ‘equal parts memoir and manifesto,’ tracing ‘the off-the-field battles that turned a single act of protest into a movement that changed American sports and culture forever.’
Kaepernick is narrating the audio edition, produced and to be sold exclusively by Audible.
The 38-year-old played six years for the 49ers and helped lead them to an appearance in the Super Bowl in 2013. Baltimore won the game 34-31.
He has not played since 2016, despite being hosted for multiple tryouts.
Kaepernick has spoken out often on social issues, launched his own publishing imprint and co-written the picture story ‘We Are Free, You & Me’ and the graphic novel ‘Change the Game.’
