Colin Kaepernick Editing, Publishing Police and Prisons Abolition Book

While one former star quarterback is returning to the NFL, another is making it less likely we’ll ever see him play football again by continuing to pursue his off-field interests.

In a series of posts on social media, ex-San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick announced his publishing company, Kaepernick Publishing, will be releasing an anthology of 30 essays about abolishing the police and the prison system in October. Kaepernick, 33, served as editor of Abolition for the People: The Movement For a Future Without Policing & Prisons.

The book “builds on decades of organizing and writing against policing and prisons” and the former quarterback’s hope is that it “adds to the chorus of voices calling for a world without and beyond policing and prisons.”

Today, I’m excited to share that we at @KaepernickPub will be releasing our first title, ABOLITION FOR THE PEOPLE: THE MOVEMENT FOR A FUTURE WITHOUT POLICING & PRISONS, on 10/12/21. This anthology builds on decades of organizing and writing against policing & prisons… pic.twitter.com/84nUD3v4r2
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) May 11, 2021

“The omnipresent threat of premature death at the hands, knees, chokeholds, tasers, and guns of law enforcement has only further engrained its anti-Black foundation into the institutions of policing,” Kaepernick wrote in one of his posts about Abolition for the People. “In order to eradicate anti-Blackness, we must also abolish the police. The abolition of one without the other is impossible.”

Initially published in partnership with Medium as a digital collection in October of 2020, the book’s authors include political prisoners, community organizers, scholars and family members of those killed by the anti-Black terrorism of policing and prisons.

“We’re honored to build on decades of organizing and writing against policing and prisons and hope that this book will serve as an introduction to abolitionist concepts, histories, and practices,” Kaepernick said. “Readers won’t find all the answers here, but we believe they will find useful and provocative questions – questions that can open up radical possibilities for a future where our communities can thrive.”

While Kaepernick is busy with his book in his fifth year away from the NFL, a quarterback who last played in a regular-season game in 2012, Tim Tebow, is making his return to the league. In order to do it, Tebow is switching positions and will attempt to play tight end for his former college coach Urban Meyer with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Per Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk, Meyer is the only coach who would have signed Tebow. Kaepernick would also likely need his former coach to come back to the NFL in order to make a return of his own.

“Indeed, if Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh would have become the Jaguars coach, Harbaugh quite possibly would have signed Kaepernick, given the numerous times Harbaugh has gushed about Kaepernick over the past four years, based on their time together in San Francisco,” Florio writes. “So that’s the common thread. The Jaguars hired the one coach most likely to sign Tebow, not the one coach most likely to sign Kaepernick. If/when an NFL team hires Harbaugh, that’s when Kaepernick could get another chance.”