Colin Kaepernick’s unfinished business, 10 years after he took a knee: Exclusive

Ten years after taking a knee to stand against racism and police brutality at great cost to his career and finances, Colin Kaepernick is back in the spotlight.

Colin Kaepernick still puts in a workout at 4:30 a.m. most days. His football life may be long over, but his life’s work is not.

Ten years after taking a knee to stand against racism and police brutality at great cost to his career and finances, the former star quarterback is stepping back into the spotlight.

Add to GoogleColin Kaepernick reflects on his 2016 national anthem protest02:58His memoir, “The Perilous Fight,” comes out on Sept. 15. And in interviews with NBC News, his first time speaking in depth about his protest’s fallout in years, Kaepernick reveals the story behind how he came to take a knee in 2016, an act that made him both a hero and a pariah, and one of the most divisive figures in the country.

Kaepernick, 38, is now also a father of a 4-year-old girl. That, he says, helped him understand he has unfinished business in his life and cause. Being a dad “increases the responsibility and urgency of the work we’re doing,” he says. He doesn’t want his daughter — or anyone else — to think he stopped fighting or that the fight was not worth it. “I don’t want my community to watch me and have the takeaway be that if you fight for Black folks, it’s over for you,” he writes in his book.

Much has shifted in American politics, culture, sports and policing since 2016. And much work still needs to be done, Kaepernick says, which is why he chose now to recount the decade-long odyssey that began with a quiet protest during the national anthem.