Publishers Weekly
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Former NFL quarterback Kaepernick discusses his upbringing and headline-grabbing controversies in this unvarnished memoir. In conversational prose, Kaepernick addresses being adopted by white parents in Wisconsin, being drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 2011, playing in the 2013 Super Bowl, and, beginning in the 2016 preseason, taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem to protest violence against Black Americans. He credits his budding political consciousness to his partner, Nessa, who encouraged him to read The Autobiography of Malcolm X. In addition to telling his own story, Kaepernick rails against exploitative practices in the NFL, including the league’s use of race-norming, which assessed Black players with a lower baseline cognitive function than players of other races, making it difficult for those suffering from brain injuries to qualify for financial benefits. He also alleges that the NFL pushed him out of the league in 2017 in retaliation for his protests, then ran misleading PR campaigns to discredit him (“It’s remarkable how dramatically the public statements and press reports in the NFL can differ from what’s going on behind the scenes”). The result is an inspiring story of sticking to one’s values no matter the costs. Agent: Michael Johnston, CAA. (Sept.)

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

The first three games of the 2016 preseason, San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick sat on a cooler near the bench, apart from his standing teammates, during the playing of the national anthem in a quiet protest over the recent killings of Black men by police officers. Until, spectacularly, his protest was quiet no more. As Kaepernick writes, amid a media firestorm, free safety Eric Reid suggested to him that before the next game, they join their teammates and take a knee rather than appear disrespectful. “Disrespectful to whom?” Kaepernick writes. “How could pointing out police killing Black folks be more disrespectful than police killing Black folks?” Kaepernick and Reid together famously took a knee, inflaming while also animating and even elevating the ongoing national “conversation” over civil rights in America. This autobiography may lack the granular detail fans might seek in the backstories of their sports heroes, but Kaepernick, biracial son of an adoptive white family, offers a candid, observant, generous chronicle of his development as an elite, suddenly dispensable NFL quarterback and also of the relentless, high-profile civil rights warrior he’s become. Kaepernick’s painful truths—especially barbed about the racism he’s experienced within the NFL but also in the outside world—find their mark here.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A principled athlete strives for social justice. Kaepernick forthrightly details the activism that earned him global renown but cost him his NFL career. In 2016, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback “was filled with disgust” after police shootings of fellow Black men in several American cities. Before a preseason game, he made a spontaneous decision: “It hit me in that moment that I should find a seat” during the national anthem. He did the same at two more games before reporters noticed. Kaepernick will forever be associated with “taking a knee” during the anthem, but he credits Eric Reid—a teammate who agreed with Kaepernick’s message—for suggesting that they kneel together during subsequent anthems. The protest changed everything for Kaepernick. President Trump vilified him. Kaepernick and his wife received death threats. And though he’d taken the 49ers to a Super Bowl, no teams would sign him. He will likely make news for his take on Jay-Z, whose lucrative partnership with the NFL was criticized as an attempt to launder the league’s reputation. Visiting Africa, where Kaepernick learns about “African leaders who willingly sold their own people to the enslavers,” he “couldn’t help but to think about Jay-Z and the NFL.” In opening chapters, Kaepernick recalls suffering traumatic racial abuse as a child. Being in “white spaces”—he was adopted by white parents—placed him “under a microscope every minute of every day.” He isn’t always nuanced, depicting some people he disagrees with as cartoonishly clueless. But his writing about how college and pro teams “lied” to him about injuries underlines his “feeling of being a disposable commodity.” A decade has passed since Kaepernick played in the NFL, but he stays fit in case “a team needing a QB” calls. A football star’s bracing account of his battle for racial equality—and how powerful forces arrayed against him. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.