So ends the Colin Kaepernick Era in San Francisco – not with a thud, or a bolt of lightning, or even a shriek of agony, but with the sound of a slowly deflating balloon.
Monday’s decision to bench him for Blaine Gabbert for the Atlanta game Sunday isn’t listed as anything other than a “we want to give him a break and see what Gabbert can do,” but we all know better. Kaepernick is done in San Francisco. When tossed atop the Vernon Davis trade earlier in the day, it is the beginning of nine weeks of earnest capitulation by a team that started dismantling itself a year ago, and is now close to finishing the job entirely.