Colin Kaepernick says his mother wanted him to date Taylor Swift

Colin Kaepernick says his mother once urged him to ask out Taylor Swift.

Teresa Kaepernick told her son the two would be perfect together, he writes in his memoir The Perilous Fight. The book was published on Sept. 15, with details of the passage reported by Billboard on Sept. 17.

Kaepernick says the conversation took place while he was playing in the NFL, the professional American football league in the United States. That was before Travis Kelce made his move, he notes. He writes that Swift was not his type.

He also says the suggestion left him bothered. Other accounts of the book describe him as upset by his mother’s wish for him to date Swift, as reported by Yahoo. The exchange is brief in the memoir, but it has drawn attention because it links two public figures who never became a couple.

Kaepernick was born to Heidi Russo and was adopted by Rick and Teresa Kaepernick in December 1987, according to People. He has spoken about growing up with White adoptive parents as an isolating experience, in conversation with co-author Eve L. Ewing. That discussion explored how hard it could be to raise questions about race inside a loving family.

He revisited that period in a different form in Change the Game, a graphic novel — a long story told through sequential art and text. The book tells his life story from the perspective of his teenage self, as reported by People. It focuses on his school years, sport and search for identity.

Kaepernick later knelt before a preseason game in protest against police violence and racial inequality, an act documented by ESPN. The Perilous Fight arrived almost exactly 10 years after that protest. Plans to publish the memoir in September were first reported on April 7, 2026, by TSN.

What makes this stand out is the placement. A short family anecdote sits inside a memoir shaped by larger questions of race, adoption and football. For readers coming to the book through music or sport headlines, it offers a personal exchange before the wider story resumes.