Colin Kaepernick’s mom thought he and Taylor Swift were end game — years before the pop star’s romance with Travis Kelce.
“When I was in the NFL, she told me that I should ask out Taylor Swift (long before Travis Kelce made his move) because we would be perfect together,” the ex-NFL player, 38, wrote of Tessa Kaepernick in his “Perilous Fight” memoir, published Tuesday.
While the athlete didn’t mean any “slight to Taylor,” he clarified the 36-year-old “was not [his] type.”
The retired quarterback did not specify exactly when this took place, but he played for the San Francisco 49ers between 2011 and 2016.
By the time he left the NFL, Colin was in a relationship with radio host Nessa Diab, with whom he welcomed a baby in 2022.
Diab, 42, revealed in August 2025 that they wed “years ago.”
Get the latest news on Taylor Swift every week.
Sign up for Page Swift
Thank for signing up!
Swift, for her part, started dating Kelce, 36, in the summer of 2023. The couple got engaged in August 2025 and tied the knot in July of the following year.
Colin explained in his memoir that his mom’s comments about Swift, 36, highlighted his belief that she is not “capable of seeing who [he] really” is.
He went on to share an instance during which Tessa “convinced” him to ask a classmate to a school dance.
Noting that “Lindsay was white,” Colin wrote that their picture from the dance was “promptly plastered … on the wall for all to see” — and the same was not done when he took a Black classmate named Crystal to homecoming.
“When I got the official portrait from that night, featuring me and Crystal posed up in that classic, airbrushed frame, my mother hid it away in the back of a drawer,” Colin claimed. “In her mind, Crystal was just a phase. Lindsay was the kind of girl I should want.”
Elsewhere in his book, Colin documented his journey to the NFL — and, ultimately, out of the league in 2016 after controversy over kneeling during national anthems as a protest against racial injustice and police brutality.
Colin was not signed as a free agent the following year, and while he filed a grievance against the NFL in 2017, he reached a settlement two years later and dropped the lawsuit.
As for whether he’d ever return to playing, Colin recently joked to Us Weekly, “We got the cleats by the door. We’ll be out the door.”
He speculated he’s better than “a good amount” of current quarterbacks, noting, “It’s tough to say because I haven’t been watching the games, but I will check the stat lines.”
Welcome to the Page Six Community!
Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas in a safe space.
In order to do so, we've created a simple set of rules that will improve your experience.
Simply put, keep it civil.
Your post will/might be rejected if it contains:
- Spam
- Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language and threats of any kind
- Attacks on the identity of other commenters or the article's author
User accounts will/might be blocked if we notice:
- Continuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejected
- Racist, sexist, or homophobic comments
- Attempts or tactics that put the site security at risk
So, how can you be a power user?
- Stay on topic and share your passion. Feel free to elaborate to get your point across.
- 'Like' or 'Dislike' when you are filled with emotions!
- Protect your community. Use the report tool to alert us when someone breaks the rules.
Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Don't forget, freedom of speech is not the freedom of reach!

53 minutes ago
12


