The former San Francisco 49ers QB is back on the cover of GQ magazine. In 2013, Colin Kaepernick was first featured in GQ as the backup quarterback that took his team to Super Bowl XLVII. Now, in 2017, Kap has been named "Citizen of the Year", sharing the 2017 Men (and Woman) of the Year honor with Kevin Durant, Stephen Colbert, and Gal Gadot.
J. Cole first met Colin during his breakout season. When the platinum rap star first learned the QB was taking a knee during the anthem and started seeing what Kap was saying in interviews, it hit him hard.
"His answers were just so clear and potent. Like, right on point. And he wasn't backing down. And he wasn't afraid. He was just being honest. And it didn't seem like he was looking for attention. It caught me off guard because, you know, nothing personally against him, I just didn't know when I met him that the person with the biggest balls in sports would be him."
Eric Reid, Kaepernick's former teammate and first NFL player to join him in kneeling during the anthem, and Ameer Hasan Loggins (writer and U.C. Berkeley academic, lecturer, onetime Bay Area hip-hop icon) were among the others that spoke with GQ about Colin.
Photo: Getty Images