The first San Francisco 49ers quarterback since Joe Montana or Steve Young to start a Super Bowl did not score touchdowns for tradition-steeped Notre Dame or BYU. He didn’t grow up Mormon, in the Monongahela Valley or with a milk moustache.

Colin Kaepernick is half-black, half-white and all tatted up. He is your counterculture all-American QB, communicating through body art instead of social media. He sprints into your living rooms Sunday night with blinders on, oblivious to the pressure and expectation for a 25-year-old starting merely his 10th NFL game.

He has a soul patch on his chin and a chip on his shoulder from birth, and if people keep asking him if he “feels” for Alex Smith, who took the 49ers to the NFC Championship game a year ago and lost his job to Kaepernick only after he was concussed during a game, one day he is going to just blurt out the hard truth: