When former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick released his memoir, The Perilous Fight, earlier this week, no one knew he was about to drop a revelation involving Taylor Swift, the pop star who got married to Chiefs star Travis Kelce earlier this year. 

That move has since drawn the attention of a former Cowboys wide receiver, Dez Bryant, who has since called Kaepernick out on bringing Swift in his memoir. 

“I’m surprised nobody caught onto this,” Bryant wrote in a now-deleted X post. “Why include Taylor Swift in your book? There were many ways you could have expressed your experience without mentioning her name knowing she married. We all know you did it for clickbait. The way you talk about the parents who helped put you in a position to succeed tells me you could never be trusted. 

“If you felt like your parents whitewashed you..you could have had that discussion privately. Everything was fine when you were playing in the Super Bowl and making commercials.. Real issues do happen..but the way Kap is going about it makes him seem fake. Timing is everything. Everyday I’m in the defense of people who look like me. So when I see the Kap I’m speaking on it.. Cut that fro off bruh.. it’s cringe!”

Bryant was referring to a part in the memoir, when Kaepernick had explained his adoptive mother, Teresa, suggested he should date the pop star, believing that the duo would be “perfect together.” 

“When I was in the NFL, she told me that I should ask out Taylor Swift (long before Travis Kelce made his move),” Kaepernick wrote in his memoir before adding: “No slight to Taylor, but she was not my type.”

Now, Kaepernick had used the pop star’s example to show that he and his parents were seldom on the same page. He wasn’t specifically talking about Swift, but showing the different perspectives his parents had when it came to his dating life, as he would later go on to write.

“I asked Crystal to the homecoming dance, a formal affair involving fancy gowns, tuxedos, and corsages. We had a nice time at the dance. 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.”

“My mother convinced me to ask Lindsay, the daughter of one of her friends, to the next formal dance. Lindsay was white. When I brought that picture home, my mother promptly plastered it on the wall for all to see. In her mind, Crystal was just a phase. Lindsay was the kind of girl I should want.”

The part that may have led to Bryant’s statement is the timing. Kelce and Swift got married just a few months ago, in a private ceremony early in July. Kaepernick’s memoir came out on September 15. 

While the timing may seem close, it was likely a coincidence, especially since Kaepernick had announced he had completed the book back in April, while the wedding came as a surprise for most. 

What is more interesting is that this is just the most recent exchange between Bryant and Kaepernick. 

Back in 2021, five years after Kaepernick had been ousted from the NFL, Bryant had spoken about Kaepernick on the I Am Athelete podcast.

“I respect Colin Kaepernick, but there’s one thing I don’t respect. And I said when I get the opportunity to get on the stage to say it I would say it. I love him to death, so it ain’t no hate or nothing like that. But brother, you had the biggest opportunity in the world to create jobs, build jobs, give jobs to people, the people you were talking about, the people that you so called standing up for, the people who stood beside you, the people who lost their jobs because of you. Where are you at? I ain’t heard from you.” 

At the time, Bryant received plenty of criticism online for the statement, especially since Kaepernick had already set up his own publishing house and Know Your Rights Camp, a non-profit to elevate communities. 

And while the Taylor Swift anecdote drew criticism, it forms part of a broader account of Kaepernick’s complicated relationship with his adoptive parents and his experience growing up in a white family.