Colin Kaepernick Confesses to Rejecting Taylor Swift Romance Despite Mother’s Demand

Colin Kaepernick’s six-year NFL career brought him plenty of attention on and off the field. However, some of the most unexpected stories from that period are only coming to light now. The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback has opened up about his life away from football in his new memoir, The Perilous Fight. Kaepernick recalled personal experiences from his playing days that offer a different look at the man behind the headlines.

In one of the segments of his memoir, Kaepernick detailed his experience growing up with his adoptive white parents. At the same time, the 38-year-old revealed that his mother, Teresa Kaepernick, suggested that he should ask Taylor Swift out because she believed the two would be perfect together. Kaepernick, however, admitted that Swift simply wasn’t his type.

“It was disappointing to me that my mother didn’t seem capable of seeing who I really was,” Kaepernick wrote in his memoir. “Years later, when I was in the NFL, she told me that I should ask out Taylor Swift (long before Travis Kelce made his move) because we would be perfect together. No slight to Taylor, but she was not my type.”

Kaepernick didn’t explain at what time in his NFL career his mom suggested him to ask out Taylor Swift. The former quarterback spent six seasons with the 49ers from 2011 to 2016. However, it’s worth noting that in his memoir, Kaepernick also discussed his experience growing up as a black child adopted by white parents.

He noted that he sometimes felt that his adoptive parents didn’t fully understand his identity. Kaepernick recounted that when he was younger, he was interested in a black girl named Crystal. However, his mom encouraged him to talk to Lindsay instead, the daughter of one of her white friends.

“I asked Crystal to the homecoming dance, a formal affair involving fancy gowns, tuxedos, and corsages. We had a nice time at the dance. When I got the official portrait from that night, featuring me and Crystal posed up in that classic, airbrushed frame, my mother hid it away in the back of a drawer,” wrote Kaepernick.

“My mother convinced me to ask Lindsay, the daughter of one of her friends, to the next formal dance. Lindsay was white. When I brought that picture home, my mother promptly plastered it on the wall for all to see. In her mind, Crystal was just a phase. Lindsay was the kind of girl I should want.”

Colin Kaepernick interpreted those experiences as evidence that his mother had a particular idea of the kind of woman she thought he should date.

However, Kaepernick also admitted that his mother suggested him to ask out Taylor Swift long before she started dating the Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce. The couple’s relationship grabbed the spotlight in the summer of 2023 before Swift became a constant presence during the Chiefs games.

Kelce and Swift later got engaged in 2025 ahead of the tight end’s season with the Chiefs. Months later, the couple tied the knot in a private ceremony at Madison Square Garden earlier this year before Kelce started his 14th NFL season with Kansas City.

Colin Kaepernick, on the other hand, started dating radio host Nessa Diab. The couple later welcomed a baby in 2022. While Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL for a decade, he currently remains a civil rights activist.

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