Taylor Swift was always meant to be with an NFL star, in the eyes of Colin Kaepernick’s mom.
Though the pop star would ultimately married Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2026, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback wrote in his memoir published Tuesday (Sept. 15), The Perilous Fight, that his mother, Teresa, once suggested he date Swift. Kaepernick used the moment as an example of how his parents, who are white and adopted him when he was baby, didn’t understand his true personality and 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 this anecdote with another memory of his mom being unsupportive of his high-school relationship with a Black classmate named Crystal. “I asked Crystal to the homecoming dance, a formal affair involving fancy gowns, tuxedoes and corsages. … 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,” he wrote.
“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.”
Both Swift and Kaepernick would get their happy endings. The latter is married to radio personality Nessa Diab, with whom he welcomed a child in 2022. Their nuptials weren’t quite as high-profile as the 14-time Grammy winner’s, which took place over Fourth of July weekend this year with a reported 1,000 guests in attendance at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Swift — whose latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, spent 12 weeks atop the Billboard 200 last year — recently returned to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City to watch Kelce kick off another season with the Chiefs, who won 31-10 against the Denver Broncos on Monday (Sept. 14).
Kaepernick, however, has not played for the NFL since the 2016-2017 season, during which he famously kneeled during the national anthem at games in protest of police brutality targeting Black Americans, sparking political outrage. After no team signed him the following season, he filed a grievance against the league and team owners, alleging collusion, and reached a settlement in February 2019. He’s been dedicated to civil rights activism in the years since his initial protests on the field.
