Colin Kaepernick Is Coming Out With a Memoir

Former quarterback to publish The Perilous Fight in September
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 7, 2026 5:36 PM CDT
Colin Kaepernick Is Coming Out With a Book
This cover image shows "The Perilous Fight" by Colin Kaepernick.   (Legacy Lit via AP)

A decade after he first took a knee during the national anthem, Colin Kaepernick will be publishing his life story. The activist and former San Francisco 49ers quarterback has completed The Perilous Fight, reports the AP, set to come out Sept. 15 through the Hachette Book Group imprint Legacy Lit. His memoir will come out almost exactly 10 years after he knelt before a preseason game, a protest against police violence and racial inequality that was emulated by some players and criticized by politicians, team owners, and fans, some of whom booed him and burned his jersey.

Kaepernick, who has not played in the NFL since 2016, said in a statement that he wanted to offer context for what led to his taking a knee. Before that, he had remained seated during the anthem. "People saw the moment. But they didn't see the years that made it possible: the questions about who I was; the injustices I could no longer ignore; the voices of those who came before me that I carried into that stadium," Kaepernick said in a statement released Tuesday. "That journey, from a Black kid navigating an identity the world didn't always make space for, to an athlete who realized the game was bigger than football, shaped everything. When I took a knee, it wasn't a sudden act."

Legacy Lit is calling the book "equal parts memoir and manifesto," tracing "the off-the-field battles that turned a single act of protest into a movement that changed American sports and culture forever." Kaepernick is narrating the audio edition, produced and to be sold exclusively by Audible. Kaepernick, 38, played six years for the 49ers and helped lead them to an appearance in the Super Bowl in 2013. Baltimore won the game 34-31. Kaepernick has spoken out often on social issues, launched his own publishing imprint, and co-written the picture story We Are Free, You & Me and the graphic novel Change the Game.

Read These Next
Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X
More News: Father Of Tiramisu Dies.Html | Israeli Hostage Shiri Bibas Body Fina... | Thousands Rescued From Notorious Scam... | Msu Wanted To Put Up Hammocks Got Som... | Kyle Rittenhouses Fate Hinges On Self...