Super Bowl week wasn't the time for America to get to know Colin Kaepernick. There were too many media members, too much business for Kaepernick to attend to.
We've always heard that Kaepernick is a smart, terrific kid behind the scenes, but he hasn't shown that side to the public much until a Tuesday article by Peter King on TheMMQB.com. Kaepernick is very aware that being an adopted, biracial, speedster with tattoos for days is not what you expect in an NFL starting quarterback.
"I want to try to break that perfect football mold," Kaepernick said. "I don't want to be someone who can be put into a category. I want to be my own person. I want my own style. I want to be someone who can't really be compared to anybody."
The 25-year-old speaks passionately in the article about his tattoos, disrespectful behavior from his biological mother and a presumptuous Rick Reilly column. But his comments on his San Francisco 49ers losing the Super Bowl might resonate the most.
"(I'm) still not really over it," Kaepernick said. "It feels like something was stolen."
Most painful: The aborted third-down play where Jim Harbaugh called a timeout because the 49ers' play clock was running down. It appeared that Kaepernick had a path to the end zone as a runner on the play, with only Ray Lewis in his way.
"I constantly think about it," Kaepernick said. "I replay it. I rehash it. What could I have done better? If I got everybody up and got them set quicker, we wouldn't have had to worry about the play clock. The way the play looked to me, I don't feel there was anybody that was going to stop us from getting in the end zone ... It looked like it could have been a walk into the end zone."
Kaepernick was that close to pulling off the greatest comeback win in Super Bowl history, just a few weeks after completing one of the more dominant playoff performances ever in the divisional round against the Green Bay Packers.
"It got to a point," Kaepernick said, "where we could hear (the Packers' defenders) arguing while we were in our huddle. 'You're supposed to do this,' or 'You have to do this, then the other.' At that point, our offense was like, 'it's over.' As soon as you start turning on your teammates, you're not going to be productive. You know you have them in the palm of your hands."
The NFL now is in the hands of guys like Kaepernick, Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson. Kaepernick might just be the most fascinating player to watch of them all.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.
