You may have noticed him in the 2013 ESPN body issue (I mean, how could you not?), but get ready, because Colin Kaepernick's next photo op is here.
The NFL quarterback is the newest gentleman to grace the cover of GQ, but as the magazine points out in its September issue, there's definitely more than meets the eye to the star rookie.
His stories as the high school player who received no Division 1 school offers and "the backup who took his team to the Super Bowl" are widely known, but his humble beginnings are not.
The 49er was adopted by Teresa and Rick Kaepernick, "sweethearts since they were 14-year-olds growing up in rural Wisconsin" (how cute!).
Biological and racial differences did not waive the love the Kaepernicks felt for their son.
"Colin knew from the beginning that he was different…we'd just say, ‘You've got such beautiful brown skin! We're jealous!" Rick said. "We never wanted him to feel that he was white or that he should be. Only to be who he needed to be."
"In eighth grade, [Colin] was a big Allen Iverson fan and wanted cornrows," he fondly recalled, adding, "We had to go all the way to Modesto to find a guy who did that."
Aw!
Amy Curd, his high school precalculus teacher, remembers him as an eager learner who graduated high school with a 4.1 GPA—studly and smart.
"Colin was obsessed with problem solving, with figuring out how things worked," she recalled. "He always sat in the front of the class…it was never about the grades—he was in class to learn."
And he guessed from an early age that he would one day make it to the big leagues. How adorable is this letter he wrote to himself in the fourth grade?
"I hope I go to a good college in football, then go to the pros and play on the niners or the packers even if they aren't good in seven years."
Spot on.