SANTA CLARA, Calif. — With nine days to go until Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is keeping a low profile — unless he’s asked about his tattoos.
When asked yesterday what his life is like now as San Francisco’s starting Super Bowl quarterback compared to six months ago, when he was a second-stringer, he said with a straight face:
“It’s the same as it was six months ago. I just try and keep my head down and keep working and not worry about anything else.”
Kaepernick doesn’t need to look far to remind himself about the wild contrasts of life as an elite player in the NFL.
There is a permanent message inked on the inside of his powerful arms that signifies the two sides to the double life he leads. It reads: “My gift is my curse.” Kaepernick said that is his favorite of his many tattoos.
“I just feel like that is something that applies to my life in many different ways,” he said.
“Being an NFL quarterback, there’s a lot of advantages that come with it. There are a lot of doors that open when you’re a quarterback, but at the same time you’re under a lot of scrutiny. There are a lot of things you can’t do as well.”
Kaepernick’s tattoos have drawn criticism, but Kaepernick is unconcerned.
“I don’t really care what people think about my tattoos,” he said. “I got them for me and to show people this is what I believe in.”
Whenever he throws a touchdown pass or rushes for a score, he kisses his biceps — an act which has become known as “Kaepernicking” — recognizing his faith while drawing even more attention to his inscriptions.
Asked if he expects to be “Kaepernicking” a lot on Super Bowl Sunday, he said, “I hope so.”
* Carlos Rogers will be playing in his first Super Bowl, but the cornerback, who spent the first six years of his career with the Redskins, has vivid memories of the two recent championship victories by his former rivals, the Giants.
“When [David] Tyree made that special catch from Eli [Manning], that’s probably one of the moments that really stuck out in my head,” Rogers said. “I don’t think anyone gave New York a chance to win that game. … Their performance out there kind of shocked the world.”
Rogers also mentioned former Giants receiver Mario Manningham’s catch in last year’s Super Bowl as a lasting memory. Manningham, now with the 49ers, was not available for interviews.
* Defensive tackle Ricky Jean Francois, who played on LSU’s team that won the BCS national title at the Superdome in 2008, had some advice for the younger players on the 49ers.
“Go be with your family,” Jean Francois said. “Everybody knows the task at hand. You want that Lombardi Trophy, sacrifice that time putting in work and don’t worry about all that festivities stuff, once you win you can do that all you want to.”
Jean Francois said going back to New Orleans feels like a homecoming of sorts. He has a lot of Louisiana connections from his days with the Tigers and he said that by the day after the win against the Falcons in last Sunday’s NFC Championship Game, he had received 125 phone messages, presumably asking for Super Bowl tickets.
“I feel like I’m going back to the national championship again but now on another level on the biggest stage — the Super Bowl,” he said.
“I remember changing my [phone] number from last year and the guy who has that number said he had over 87 missed calls,” Jean Francois joked.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
When it was suggested that the 49ers and Ravens had similar style teams, Jean Francois disagreed strongly.
“I don’t see any similarity, no mirror or anything like that. They [Ravens] run a different type of offense than we run,” he said. “Everything is different. The coaches are different, even though they have the same last name.”
* To the surprise and delight of the hordes of reporters at the 49ers training facility, a few minutes after the 49ers locker room was closed to the media, an unexpected knock on the door to the media room revealed a delivery of 15 large pizzas courtesy of Kaepernick. As reporters earnestly chowed down, Kaepernick’s generous offering was being compared by San Francisco beat reporters to other 49ers players who provided the media with free food in previous seasons.