The blog world is all atwitter regarding our ascendant quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and his gall for wearing a Miami Dolphins hat in public last week. After feeling the slings and arrows from Niner fans on twitter (I guess) and of course, the media frenzy on a slow news day, he replied with this:
“This the hat y’all mad at? I’m goin wear what I want regardless of what you think, all you need to worry about is the fact that I grind for my teammates and the 49ers! I plan on doin this until they won’t let me in the building!”
Excuse me if I don’t feel the need to throw him under the bus quite yet. Some folks question his commitment to the team (really?), some think he’s a thug and a punk (whatever. Old ground), some think he’s simply immature (possible). My take? Get a grip. It’s a hat, for God’s sake. Is it juvenile wear another football team’s hat? Sure. Is it wrong to call out the media for dogging his attire? No. last time I checked, people are free to wear what they choose. Is it misguided to wear another team’s colors? Well, yeah. I suppose, but you see players wear other team’s hats all the time. However, it mostly is guys wearing hats from a different sport. As in Alan Iverson wearing a Boston Red Sox hat, or Bron Bron wearing a Yankee hat. Kappy himself last year was sporting a Milwaukee Brewers hat for some interviews. It makes sense as he was born in Wisconsin, and a baseball cap doesn’t conflict with football. If he was wearing a Packers hat, I could imagine the hooraw around something like that. Bitter rivals and all.
The Dolphins? Ehhh. Is it bad form? Sure. Does it bother me? Not in the least. Kappy has shown himself to be a true professional who works as hard as anyone else in the game, and is constantly pushing himself to be a better player. Plus, it’s the offseason. If this was 3 days before a Miami game, I’d be questioning his sanity, let alone his allegiance, but in July? Who cares? Will this be an issue in 3 months? No.
Forty Niners Forever 
Fuck the fans, NoFear. This was driven by teenage girls with twitter accounts. This is what we hold our behavior standards to. Screaming teenyboppers with twitter accounts.
Kap wearing a Dolphins hat is a non-issue for me. He’s received an absurd amount if flack over this. Shit, he’s not Aaron Hernandez. He wore a fucking hat. Big deal
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Hard to see how Kappy comes off so bad in the eyes of the fans when he’s done what he’s done in his short career.
Disingenuous……dissed the genuous…has Harbaugh ever been genuine with the press….except to make fun of them….Kap is posing neckid in the espn shoot….so is 75 year old Gary Player, sorry, just not a good look, old men need to wear pants.
So does the 49ers QB, just sayin’…..put me down as just another old cranky guy waiting for football season to start
Now if it was the Niner Nuggets…I’d be all for it
I’m totally with you there, NinerDog!
Haven’t had the (dis)pleasure of seeing Gary Player sans-a-belt. Think I’ll pass.
I read Staley was wondering when they were gonna get to feature the O-line in the birthday suit shoot. That would send people to reverse thier laser eye surgeries for sure.
At least Kap isn’t groping women on hospital gurneys while drunk in Las Vegas like Chad Gaudin is (allegedly). I’d say the SF Giants have hit an all-time low, but each time I do they just keep digging deeper and deeper.
In the words of Chris Cornell of Soundgarden,
“I got up feeling so down
I got off being sold out
I’ve kept the movie rolling
But the story’s getting old now
I just looked in the mirror
Things aren’t looking so good
I’m looking California
And feeling Minnesota
I’m feeling that I’m sober
Even though I’m drinking
I can’t get any lower
Still I feel I’m sinking”
sob…..sniff…..
You OK, RTF?
Me, Chuck? Yeah, I’m great. Just had one cup of coffee too many at the restaurant next door where I supped. Took FOREVER to get to sleep, and I’m not sure I ever really made it.
No mas! No more coffee for me, at least not in the evening. Just watchin’ movies today and listenin’ to music on YouTube.
Chuck, when I drove cross country, I listened to the Mamas and the Papas nearly the whole way home.
And I just found a very old B&W of them on TV. They had these dancers dressed up in cheerleader costumes pop up out of the bathtubs they had on stage.
I’m just fine, thank you.
Found one, Chuck. Some guy put together a video mix combined with “California Dreamin'”.
Shows guys wading through knee deep snow in full winter clothes just to get to their cars (which I have done, because you have to here if you wish to survive). Mixed in with pics of babes in bikinis walking on the beach.
I love the snow and the cold, myself. Didn’t at first, but do now, but it’s July and it’s bloody hot.
“California Dreamin on such a winter’s DAY!”
Michelle Phillips interviewed about organizing the first Monterey Pop Festival with John Phillips.
“Otis Redding had never performed before a white hippie audience.”
“I’d never even heard of Janis Joplin, or Jimi Hendrix. But your jaw just dropped.”
Gawd, I love YouTube sometimes. Now I’ve got to listen to some Hendrix.
I’m completely ignoring this controversy intentionally, BTW.
I just simply don’t know what to think or how to respond.
Part of me definitely agrees with NF, no more sports heroes.
Part of me wants to wear my Niner cap.
I wouldn’t mind a boycott for a couple seasons to take the money away from the pros, but good luck.Football is firmly entrenched in America, and where the Niners go broke, the Cards or Rams will spend the bucks and win.
Honestly, if I had any clue as to the solution besides starting early and often with education, I would offer it.
There are my 2 cents for the day.
Money is the root of all evil RT?
Not sure about that but NF has a point that the athletic heroes are “me first” to a greater degree than used to be the case with rare exception.
I agree with a point you made before about the backfield being the big question mark this year. On paper it’s regressed, good job they don’t play on paper eh?
Money isn’t the root of all evil 12th. $20 million bonuses for college athletes is.
College students in this country spend DECADES trying to pay back their student loans.
I’m lucky. I almost stepped on that land mine, too.
At least we know why Gaudin was in the hospital..
Needed a date who couldn’t say no apparently.
RTF, look at the deeds Kappy has done. Look at the charities he started, his stellar academic record, and his apparent Christianity. Those are bible quotes all over him. How he chooses to show that is different, granted, I mean there’s another QB who goes about it differently, but who’s to say either is right or wrong?
The point being, Kappy wore a hat during the offseason. On his own time..He didn’t get busted drunk driving, or grope someone or do anything even remotely illegal immoral, or insane. Due to social media, it turned into a shitstorm. He started working out a week after the super bowl ended. He’s been working ever since. If you lose faith in the guy over the hat, then you are easily swayed. I see more in him than some kind of misguided joke the hat thing turned out to be.
The thing about athletics in general, most football players at least pretend to go through 4 years of college. PAC 10, and conferences not SEC related usually have decent grad rates and the student athletes get something out of it. In baseball and basketball, there are lots and lots of them who go through 0-1 years of college. The point being, football players in general are the best educated out of the bunch.
Squawks take another Niner cast off.
Chuck, didn’t you spend months arguing with me about a QB from Florida who won a bunch of games in Denver, then got traded against his will to New York.
At least be consistent.
Sorry Chuck, it’s late and I’m tired.
Football players are the best educated? Exactly which planet did you come from?
I’m serious, that was just about the stupidest comment I’ve ever read anywhere. I don’t care if I’m old and tired, that was still an incredibly stupid, ridiculous comment.
They have the most help, the ones on “scholarship”, but most don’t get an actual education, even at Cal where I went.
Amateur athletics are the way to go. Pro football and that “Gam” word has taken over now.
I may even hang up my hat for the last time and just concentrate on other things. Important, but fun things.
If somebody gets up to Berkeley sometime, let me know if Top Dog is still open.
It was a 5 five minute walk from the Chancellor of Cal’s office, and the Evans building where I spent all my time. Best Bratwurst, Knockwurst, Hot Dogs, you name it, in the world.
There were lines leading out the door from grad students buying things for themselves and then their profs.
It’s going to be tough to give up Niner football, but with all the money involved and the way things are going, I’m going with Bratwurst.
“She wore a yellow ribbon” on now. I’m just a clown watching John Wayne and Joanne Dru and Ward Bond and I don’t remember who else.
The plot may be a little morally suspect, since I’m on the side of the Natives, but the photography is very real, shot at Monument Valley, AZ, with very similar terrain to here.
My Mom was a lab tech (highest rank a woman could achieve at the time there), but managed to swing it with her coworkers to take blood from Ward Bond.