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The offseason of Kap continues to roll on toward training camp, as 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took home the ESPY for Best Breakthrough Athlete. Kap claimed the award over Russell Wilson, Johnny Manziel, Mike Trout and Yasiel Puig.
I'm not surprised Kap took home the award, but it was a tough group of nominees from which to emerge. Johnny Football has been on everybody's mind. Russell Wilson has gotten plenty of publicity after lighting it up his rookie season. Mike Trout had a monster rookie year last season. And even though Yasiel Puig has been in the majors barely a month, he has blown up in LA. I honestly think you could come up with a legitimate argument for any of those guys.
Fortunately though, our man Kap took home the hardware. It was an amazing season for Kap as he came off the bench and took complete control of the 49ers QB position. Alex Smith very well could have led this team to the Super Bowl, but Kap brought a certain swagger to the 49ers that is hard to match. He caught plenty of us off-guard with his monster performances, and he has 49ers fans plenty excited for the 2013 season, and beyond.
There has been chatter from some folks about worrying about all this exposure going to his head. This is not something that concerns me at this point. Kap took a week off after the Super Bowl, and then was back in the gym getting ready for the next season. As someone mentioned, he seems like the type who gains his fuel from the doubters more than the people who praise him. I'm sure he notices the compliments, but knowing people are dogging him for this, that or the other thing seems to be enough to keep the drive alive. And given how close the team came to the mountaintop, I think there is plenty of motivation to keep that drive going.
More importantly than all this: we know that Kap wears his sunglasses at night!