SAN DIEGO -- Two hours before the most scrutinized preseason game in NFL history, all was quiet inside Qualcomm Stadium. The seats were empty, and the night’s featured entertainers were still in casual clothes. In the midst of a dozen or so 49ers teammates, his large and lustrous Afro wafting through the fray, there was Colin Kaepernick with a phablet in hand and earbuds plugged in, withdrawn in a pre-game warm-up routine that is as lonely as it is familiar.
On any other evening, maybe no one thinks of disturbing Kaepernick’s reverie. But on Thursday, a pleasantly sunny evening that quickly yielded to a cool night, there was simply no leaving him be.