Quarterback Colin Kaepernick experienced the wrath of 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh. And he is determined to make sure it does not happen again.
Kaepernick sat down with Tony Dungy for “Football Night in America,” which airs Sunday night on NBC prior to the 49ers-Texans game. Kaepernick spoke about an incident in 2011 in which Harbaugh's anger was directed at him.
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“My rookie year we had a couple of rough days,” Kaepernick said. “There was one day, I don’t remember exactly what I was doing. There was something I wasn’t doing quite right, quite how he wanted me to, and he just went off.
“He has a little fire to him and he doesn’t really snap and go off on players so when he did that, I’m really messing up. For him to go off like this in front of everybody, it’s bad. I’ve been better since then.”
Kaepernick also addressed the motivation he received from criticism from Twitter users.
“It lets you know that there are people that still think you aren’t where you should be,” Kaepernick said. “It’s kind of like what Coach Harbaugh tells us sometimes: ‘When people start talking really good about you, that’s when you need to be worried.’ I think from the time I was young, I’ve had a lot of people tell me I can’t do things so that’s a reminder that I’ve been through this before, and I’ve been successful going through it before.”
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Dungy asked Kaepernick if the 49ers are still the best team in the NFC.
“I’m not going to say what’s on our mind but I think we’re a team that’s to be reckoned with,” Kaepernick said.
Dungy responded, “That’s not what I asked. Are you the best team in the NFC?”
“I think everybody on this team thinks so,” Kaepernick said. “We have to go out and prove it week in and week out because after four weeks in the season, I think teams doubt us. They doubt what we’re capable of and I think they think we’ve fallen off, and we have to go out and prove that that’s not the case.”
