While the San Francisco 49ers prepare for Sunday's NFC Championship Game against the Atlanta Falcons, it would be foolish to ignore the fact that the media and Madison Avenue are quickly falling for Colin Kaepernick. The 49ers QB is mostly limited in his comments to the media before and after games, but his play is speaking volumes. He has had quite a few strong performances, but he had a bit of a national break-out game against the Packers, and the media is all over it.

There were two interesting articles that focus on Colin Kaepernick off the field, but allow us to glean some insight about why he is the way he is on the field. The first is a Forbes article by Darren Heitner focusing on marketing and sponsorship surrounding Kap, and the second is an ESPN article that focuses on his social media development.

Both articles include some comments from Kap's PR and marketing manager, Shawn Smith (XAM Sports). In the Forbes article, Shawn discussed how Kaepernick and XAM Sports are taking more of a long-term approach to sponsorship deals. This is in part so they don't overcommit to early deals that will cost them later. However, more importantly for our purposes:

If it's not directly related to what he's doing, he's not super ambitious to be a part of it - he has no interest in doing a big campaign or being on a big billboard," added Smith. "I have to move him out of that sometimes, because he's just football. There are some players who really like to talk about all those other opportunities off the field and really get excited about them, but he's really not interested in that. His only focus is on football.

I realize there is a brand to be built around Colin Kaepernick, and this need is only going to grow if Kaepernick's career continues to develop. But, you gotta love hearing that he is so focused on the task at hand. We've heard a lot about how he is one of the first to the practice facility, and this only further shows his determination to perfect his craft. It makes me that much more comfortable having him as the 49ers quarterback moving forward.

Related to all this, his website will apparently be going live in the next few days at Kaepernick7.com.

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