SANTA CLARA – This is the transcript of Colin Kaepernick’s Friday press conference, courtesy of the 49ers.
What are your emotions right now as you’re about to jump on a flight and head to Atlanta?
“Excited to get there.”
You mentioned a couple of days ago that you liked watching Randall Cunningham, Donovan McNabb, some of those other guys. Did you watch how they disguised the ball and faked handoffs and stuff like that? Was that something you admired about their game?
“There were a lot of things that I admired about their game, they were complete quarterbacks.”
You seem to do a really good job with the fakes on the read-option and whatnot. When did that become part of your routine? When do you feel like you mastered that aspect of it?
“High school and college. That was just part of our offense, it was something we had to do.”
Did you do the read-option in high school as well?
“No, Wing-T.”
Earlier this week, talking to your father, he said that you were adamant that baseball was secondary to football. What is it about this game that, although you had a chance to play baseball, what is it about football that took that to be your priority?
“There’s just a passion about football that no other sport can give you. In football, if one player messes up on offense, the whole play is dead. To get 11 people doing everything at the same time, towards the same goal takes a lot of effort, a lot of hard work. There’s just something about being on that field.”
The teamwork idea?
“Yeah, that’s part of it.”
You talked earlier in the week about your routine here after practice, what you do. What’s it going to be like for you to get on that plane today and do you have a special routine when you go on the road? What’s it going to be like for you when you get to Atlanta?
“It’s going to be the same routine that we always do. It’s just going to be in Atlanta, not here.”
Coach talked about [RB] Frank Gore not initially maybe buying into the read-option here. Can you talk about that process when you tuck it into him? Is there ever a tug of war when you decide to maybe pull it out? What are your keys, what are you looking for to determine whether to let Frank keep it or to pull it down?
“Well, it depends on what we have called, how we’re reading it and what we want to do. It’s really just a feel by Frank and [RB] LaMichael [James] and all of our running backs. They’ve been doing a great job with it.”
Is there ever a tug of war?
“At times, there’s time where he’s trying to take it and I’m trying to take it. But at that point, he sees something so you’re going to give him the ball. He’s going to be a Hall of Fame running back. He knows what he’s doing.”
Do you ever have to do any kind of reality check? That you’re actually here doing this, something you’ve been dreaming about since you were a kid? Do you ever stop and think? Do you have time to think or is it all working on plays and things like that?
“I don’t have time to stop and think right now, there’s too much work to be done.”
Is your approach pretty much, this is just a business trip for you guys and how much work is there left to do in Atlanta?
“This is 100 percent a business trip. This is what we’ve worked for all season and all offseason.”
There was a story in the Reno paper today that’s said that you use to really like McDonald’s and you don’t seem to have a McDonald’s physique. What was your nutrition like when you first got to college and was where it sort of changed?
“Never been a big nutrition guy, so for me if I workout enough I feel like I’m going to be alright.”
Do you still do fast food even in the NFL?
“Not so much McDonald’s anymore, but I’ll still eat my fast food.”
What’s your favorite?
“I eat a lot of Five Guys right now.”
Was there, before you played that game in New Orleans, was there anything that had prepared you for that kind of sound? College or here in your experience or was that kind of new and you just had to deal with it and learn as you go?
“We practice with sound every day, so it is something that we’re used to.”
NFL Films said that they caught you saying that you could beat one of your teammates in a footrace. Is that what you said and who were you talking to?
“Yeah, I was talking to [WR] A.J. [Jenkins].
[Falcons S] William Moore said this week about you, if you get a chance to blow him up, you’ve got to take advantage of that opportunity. The Falcons defense talking about putting a big hit on you. Are you aware of that comment and when you hear stuff that the opposition is saying, what kind of impact or any does it have on you?
“I don’t think that has any impact on me. Any defense, if they get a shot at a quarterback they’re going to take it, that’s just part of football.”
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