During this week, there were pictures of 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick wearing a Miami Dolphins snapback cap. This caused a stir among some 49ers fans, some of them confused and demanded repercussions or something ridiculous like that.
Because of that, Kaepernick went to his Instagram to address the fans.
“This the hat y’all mad at? I’m goin wear what I want regardless of what you think, all you need to worry about is the fact that I grind for my teammates and the 49ers! I plan on doin this until they won’t let me in the building! #ridiculous #y’allmustbebored”
I have no problem with this. And in fact, I actually understand him very well.
As you know, Kaepernick is a shoe and cap collector. And if you want to talk fashion, having varieties of various things is great for a collection. So when it comes to sports fashion, having throwback caps from different teams from different eras is no different. I even in fact own over 50 caps of my own. I am an Oakland A’s fan but not all of them are A’s caps. I have caps from the Blue Jays, Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros, etc.
Do people question my loyalty to the A’s when I walk around wearing another team’s cap? No. For people who don’t understand fashion. each accessory tells a story about the person. It holds some kind of valuable nugget about a person.
For me, I have these different caps because I love to match the rest of my outfit. I also like the design and more importantly, each cap represents a time period of my life that I can identify with the sport. For example, I own this Mariners cap because it reminded me of my childhood when I got this issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids. It tied me back to my first love for baseball and one of my favorite players of all time.
For Kaepernick, maybe he has the cap because it ties back to the the 1972 Dolphins team. He’s a football fan, so maybe it’s his way of paying homage to a moment in history that helped shape the company he works for. People going to get mad at Kaepernick for loving his job that much?
Remember, it’s not like Kaepernick was wearing the newest Seattle Seahawks cap. It’s him wearing a throwback cap of a team that’s not even in the same conference. It’s for fashion. (Notice the matching shoes he has.)
A quote from that Reddit thread:
So this is weird, right? Why would the QB for the San Francisco 49ers or for that matter any team in the NFL besides the Dolphins, wear a Dolphins hat? I mean, fashion? Really? I dont get it. It does not compute for me. What if Tannehill was wearing a Niners hat? As a Fins fan I would be kinda pissed…
But of course, I’ve talked with people who love sports who don’t get fashion. That’s probably those people overreacting. If you don’t get fashion, then you won’t get the statement Kaepernick is making. He doesn’t owe anyone anything if he decides to wear a cap paying homage to the history of the game.
In fact, this cap just shows that Kaepernick is comfortable with who he is and the retort he had just proves that fans will always be just that: fans. Chalk up another thing that makes Kaepernick pretty awesome. (I hope this picture is OK for you guys.)
If you’re still angry at Kaepernick, that just means you don’t get it. He gets it.
Slow offseason, huh?
But at the end of the day... 
