Colin Kaepernick Says His Mom Told Him to Date Taylor Swift and Thought They Would Be Perfect Together

Colin Kaepernick’s mother once suggested that he date Taylor Swift, according to a memoir published Tuesday (Sept. 15).

In his book The Perilous Fight, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback wrote that his mother, Teresa, suggested he ask out Swift when he played in the NFL, long before the pop star married Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2026. Kaepernick used the account to illustrate how his white adoptive parents failed to understand his identity as a person of color.

“It was disappointing to me that my mother didn’t seem capable of seeing who I really was,” Kaepernick wrote in the book. “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.”

The civil rights activist added, “No slight to Taylor, but she was not my type.”

Kaepernick, who is biracial and identifies as a Black man, contrasted the memory with an instance where his mother was unsupportive of his high-school relationship with a Black classmate named Crystal. He wrote that his mother hid the official portrait from their homecoming dance in the back of a drawer.

“My mother convinced me to ask Lindsay, the daughter of one of her friends, to the next formal dance,” the athlete continued. “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.”

Kaepernick is married to radio personality Nessa Diab, and the couple welcomed a child in 2022. Swift married Kelce over Fourth of July weekend with a reported 1,000 guests in attendance at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Swift’s latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, spent 12 weeks atop the Billboard 200 last year. She recently returned to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City to watch Kelce start another season with the Chiefs, who defeated the Denver Broncos 31-10 on Monday (Sept. 14).

Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since the 2016-2017 season. During that season, he kneeled during the national anthem to protest police brutality against Black Americans, which drew intense political backlash. After he went unsigned the following season, he filed a grievance against the league and team owners for collusion, reaching a settlement in February 2019. He has focused on civil rights activism since his protests on the field.