Colin Kaepernick will tell his life's story in a memoir, "The Perilous Fight," slated for publication on September 15.

The book's title is a lyric taken from the national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner". Ironically, a 2024 book by surgeon and former Trump first-term cabinet member Dr. Ben Carson, who once publicly criticized Kaepernick and other athletes who protested by kneeling, carried the same title.

It was NFL owners' response to Kaepernick's silent protest of the national anthem a decade ago that ended his career as a star quarterback, pivoting his fame from that of a strong-armed, mobile style of play that helped him lead the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl berth, to an NFL outcast, and finally to his current role as an activist entrepreneur.

The details of that transition over the 10 years should take up a great deal of the book, or at least Kaepernick's fans would hope. Since he last played in the NFL, he's garnered as much attention as any other former pro athlete, if not more. Yet, it's rare that fans hear directly from Kaepernick.

"When I took a knee, it wasn’t a sudden act. It was the result of years of becoming," Kaepernick said in a statement from his publisher. "And what came after taught me the most important truth: this fight has never belonged to one person. It belongs to all of us. We fight for each other. We build with each other. We must fight for justice and equity with the courage and clarity this moment demands. That is how we build a future worth fighting for."

Kaepernick's anthem protests began in September 2016, the first month of his last season with the 49ers. The country was entering a period of turmoil marked by mass protests over the killings of unarmed Black civilians. Kaepernick initially sat on the 49ers bench on the sideline during the playing of the anthem, his own protest of police violence. A teammate who had served in the military told him kneeling would be more respectful of servicemembers, so Kaepernick began doing so. That caught the attention of a reporter, and over the course of that season, Kaepernick's kneeling was debated more than his play.

He became a free agent at the end of that season, and in a remarkable turn for a quarterback who had started a Super Bowl just three seasons earlier, he never got another offer to play in the NFL. For years, Kaepernick maintained that he was ready to play, committed to not kneeling before games, and willing to accept even a backup or practice squad role. He was never signed. In 2019, he and former 49ers teammate Eric Reid, who was among many other players who joined Kaepernick in kneeling, settled with the NFL after filing a grievance accusing the league's owners of colluding to keep them out of the league.

The settlement was reportedly worth less than $10 million.

In the ensuing years, Kaepernick's off-field career has been filled with media and social justice projects. He has published other books and a 2021 Netflix episodic drama, "Colin in Black and White," about his early life, co-produced with Ava DuVernay.

He also founded Know Your Rights Camp, an organization with a stated mission "to advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders."