College football spring games are more about celebrations and fun than actual football, and honorary captains with loose (or zero) ties to the program are often a part of the festivities. Such is the case with Michigan’s Maize and Blue spring game, scheduled for Saturday, April 2. The scrimmage, set to kick off around noon ET, will feature former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick serving as an honorary captain.
While Kaepernick doesn’t have any direct ties to Michigan — he played college football at Nevada, where he threw for 10,098 yards, rushed for 4,112 yards, tossed 82 touchdowns and rushed for 59 scores — he does have a link to Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh. Kaepernick spent six seasons in the NFL, all with the 49ers and four of which overlapped with Harbaugh from 2011-14.
Kaepernick threw for 12,271 yards, 72 passing touchdowns and 30 interceptions during his career. He helped the 49ers make Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans after the 2013 season in which he threw 24 touchdowns and 3,773 combined during the regular season and postseason.
Kaepernick gained further notoriety in 2016 when he sat on the bench during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in the third game of the preseason. That sparked a league-wide movement in which several players took knees during the playing of the national anthem to protest excessive action by officers against minorities around the country. He opted out of his contract when it became clear that the team planned on releasing him following the 2016 season.
The 34-year-old has been working to get back into the NFL since then, hosting multiple on-field workouts for scouts including one earlier this month with the Seattle Seahawks.
