Earlier this week, I wrote about how Torrey Smith and Colin Kaepernick were among the San Francisco 49ers players who were wearing visors in minicamp. Players can practice in whatever they want, but the NFL requires a player get a doctor’s note and league permission to wear tinted visors during games. They can wear clear visors without specific permission, but tinted visors require permission.
At the time, Torrey Smith said he would not be wearing the tinted visor in games, but we weren’t sure what Kaepernick’s plan was. Now we have a better idea of things. Matt Barrows reported yesterday that Kaepernick is wearing contact lenses to help with short vision. Kaepernick said on Thursday that he is working on his vision this offseason. Someone actually tweeted me about seeing him at the eye doctor, so that makes a little more sense.
There is no word yet on if Kaepernick will wear the tinted visor, a clear visor, or no visor this season. But it’s one of your randomly interesting developments of the offseason.
I don’t know if his vision issues are something that can be corrected with LASIK, but if they can, I’d highly recommend the procedure. I have been near-sighted since I was 10, and got LASIK back in 2013. It was the best decision I ever made. I don't have to wear glasses for vision anymore, and it is pretty great. My vision will deteriorate with age, but hopefully it’s no more than reading glasses eventually. We'll see.