NEW YORK — Colin Kaepernick still keeps up with football — just not the NFL.
The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback said in a recent interview with NBC News that these days, he would rather watch college football than tune in to NFL games.
Kaepernick, 38, has been out of the league for nearly a decade. The quarterback, who helped lead San Francisco to the Super Bowl following the 2012 season, last played in the 49ers’ 2016 season finale.
His departure from the NFL came after a season in which he drew national attention for kneeling during the national anthem, a protest he said was intended to call attention to racial inequality and social injustice.
Colin Kaepernick speaks after receiving the ACLU Ralph Ellison Award for Defenders of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in the Arts, Business, Science and Sports during the ACLU’s 2026 Biennial Leadership Conference on July 24 in Washington.
“I’m not gonna support an organization that one, is actively blackballing me, but two, has targeted my brothers who have been protesting as part of this as well,” Kaepernick said.
Kaepernick and his former San Francisco 49ers teammate Eric Reid, who joined him in kneeling during the national anthem, later filed a grievance against the NFL alleging that teams colluded to keep them out of the league. The dispute was settled in early 2019.
In the years since his NFL career ended, Kaepernick has remained active through advocacy and charitable work. His “Know Your Rights” camps aim to educate and empower young people, while his foundation has helped fund independent autopsies in certain cases, including recently for Mississippi teenager Nolan Wells.
San Francisco 49ers linebacker Eli Harold (58) and quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) kneel during the national anthem before a game against the Miami Dolphins on Nov. 27, 2016, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
When asked by NBC News whether he ever thinks about the legacy he will leave behind, Kaepernick said it isn’t something that occupies his mind.
Instead, he said his focus remains on finding ways to make a meaningful difference and contribute to a better future.
“What I think about is what are the areas that I can do work that I think are going to have an impact and help us move towards that future together,” Kaepernick said. “At the end of the day, people will decide what that legacy is, and hopefully that’s a positive one.”
