To try to prey on athletes' livelihoods while one is going through a tough time is embarrassing to me.
— Colin Kaepernick
People are terrified of them to the point where Trump wants to ban all Muslims from coming here, which is ridiculous.
I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.
Feelings aren't going to help me win a game.
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.
Training, that's my specialty.
I have great teammates around me who make plays.
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.
I think I'm very good at reading coverage and knowing where I want to go with the ball before the ball is snapped.
When I'm actually getting off the bus, I still have my gospel playing. That's the way-to-the-game kind of music.
I think being shy or a little bit more mild-mannered is more how you treat people and how you go about your business, not necessarily how you dress or things of that nature.
Whether football's here or not, I will be fine. I go out, I play to win.
I don't watch too much TV when it comes to sports or news or things like that.
I think the biggest part of my game that's underestimated is the mental part of it.
Teammates tell me to bring it down a notch in practice or that their hands are hurting. Randy Moss told me I was the first person to ever dislocate one of his fingers.
I'm not your typical quarterback. I don't like when people say, 'Quarterbacks aren't supposed to run,' or, 'Quarterbacks aren't supposed to work out a certain way.'
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.
Thankfully, God blessed me with some legs that move pretty good, and we also get to wear pads, so I should be alright.
You're going to hurt, yes. You're going to have tweaks and problems. But you're a football player; you can play through those.
I love America.
I'm not too big on feelings.
I trained with a few Olympic runners and jumpers. Just to try to get a little bit faster, a little bit better. Anything I could do to try to get a little bit better and stay ahead of the competition.
I don't look like my high school self anymore. I feel like I look more like an adult now.
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.
When it comes down to it, you're playing football regardless of what offense you're in.
I was not going to let people tell me what I'm capable of.
Once I get into the locker room, I turn on stuff to get me hyped up. Mainly, it's a lot of rap music.
I wouldn't say there is one specific designer I rock. It's more of the look of the shirt and what occasion and where I'm wearing it to.
I don't play for job security.
I have a very high expectation for everything I do. And when I go out and compete, I expect myself to make every play.
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.'
You have to train hard and be strong while staying flexible and limber, so I'm trying to find that balance.
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.'
I do want to be a representative of the African community, and I want to hold myself and dress myself in a way that reflects that. I want black kids to see me and think, 'Okay, he's carrying himself as a black man, and that's how a black man should carry himself.'
I have great respect for people's right to believe what they want to believe. And I don't think anybody should be prosecuted or judged based on what their beliefs are.
Unless you're being carted off, you should be on the field.
What other people think of how I play and how I go about things really isn't something I worry about.
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.
To me, I'm going out there focusing on competing, not worrying about cardio or anything like that.
I never weighed myself when I was at my lightest because I didn't want to know.
At the end of the day, you have to look at, 'Are they knowledgeable? Are they doing their job?' Not what their appearance is.
I'd say that, 99 percent of the time at Nevada, I knew what the coverage was and where I was probably going before the ball was snapped. It makes it very easy when I only had to read one person and know that I was going from here to here, and if not, I'm checking it down.
To me, I've played full seasons and had success. Mentally, I've been through it before. I'm not incapable of going through this.
Victor Cruz just got his deal with Givenchy - amazing. I was so excited for him. That was amazing. So I think there are great opportunities for a lot of athletes out there.
As far as jeans and shirts, I rock a lot of different things.
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 don't think I can be too hard on myself.
It is funny to me that because I can run, because I'm athletic, people tend to see that as my only asset.
Quarterbacks can still have good bodies. I'm always conscious of the stereotype. I want to change what people think. There's a lot more to it than what you see on the field.
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.
