Memorable moments: Colin Kaepernick steps into the national spotlight - San Francisco Chronicle

A lightning bolt. A lightning rod.

That was Colin Kaepernick at Candlestick Park in January of 2013, in his first playoff game.

What we didn’t understand at that moment was just how much those descriptions would come to define the quarterback. Not just on that memorable day but for years in the future.

Kaepernick ran for a record-setting 181 yards and two touchdowns — and threw for another 263 yards and two more TDs — in that Jan. 12, 2013, game, a performance The Chronicle ranks as the Bay Area’s No. 10 sports moment of the decade.

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Almost seven years later, Kaepernick’s name continues to be one of the most significant of the decade. It is still a lightning strike, one that evokes emotions, is layered with others’ perceptions and prejudices, is used to bend arguments and divide rooms.

Kaepernick was doing all of that in 2013, but only in a football sense. The rest was to come later.

The 49ers entered the 2012 postseason as a very good team with a whole lot of questions. Unlike the delightfully unexpected ride to the playoffs the year before, the 49ers were burdened with expectations in Jim Harbaugh’s second year as coach. Harbaugh was raging against would-be critics, circling the wagons. There was a constant tension surrounding the team.

Much of that had to do with Kaepernick, who had been awarded the starting quarterback job in midseason, after Alex Smith suffered a concussion in the ninth game.

Harbaugh was in love with Kaepernick’s athleticism, the reason the team had drafted him in the second round of Harbaugh’s inaugural draft in 2011.

“I remember talking to Jim before his very first game as 49ers coach,” said John Lynch, who was working for Fox as a broadcaster at the time. “I asked him what he learned from Bill Walsh, who I had played for at Stanford. What a memorable piece of advice.

“Jim said that Bill had told him, ‘When you’re looking for your quarterback, find the guy who was the very best athlete at the high school level.’ Jim pointed at Kaepernick and told me, ‘Kap’s here because of that.’”

Kaepernick, who had been a standout pitcher as well as a quarterback in high school in Turlock (Stanislaus County), had played sparingly for his first season and a half. But when Smith was knocked out of the Rams game in early November with a concussion, Kaepernick had his opportunity.

Though that game ended in a tie, Kaepernick won his first start on a Monday night against the Bears, won at New Orleans and New England and guided the team to a 5-2-1 record in the second half.

But that didn’t mean all was well.

Smith had led the team to the NFC Championship Game just a year earlier and also remained a popular leader inside the locker room.

“You state your case with your play,” said Smith, who was leading the league in completion percentage at the time of his benching. “I feel like I’ve done that. ... I feel like the only thing I did to lose my job was get a concussion.”

There was a sense of unfairness. There were also questions about how Kaepernick, with just seven starts under his belt, would respond to the heightened pressure of the playoffs.

Harbaugh was convinced he would be fine, calling Kaepernick’s grasp of the game plan “a bit savant-like.”

But when Kaepernick threw a pick-six in the first quarter against the Packers, many thought his nerves had gotten the best of him, that the moment might be too big.

Turned out, that was a case of getting the one mistake out of the way early.

Kaepernick threw for 263 yards and two touchdowns but more startling was what he did with his legs. He ran for 181 yards and two touchdowns, kissing his biceps (remember “Kaepernick-ing?”) after each.

“He was running all over the field,” said Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. “Big, strong, athletic, throws the ball well, runs the ball extremely well. We didn’t really have a lot of answers for him.”

The Packers kept pace into the third quarter, when the score was tied 24-24. But then the Kaepernick torrent became too much. His 56-yard rushing touchdown seemed to break the Packers, who ended up losing 45-31.

“I remember watching that and just being blown away,” said Lynch, who was watching the game from another playoff venue. “I played against Michael Vick. But he just ran out of a normal offense. They weren’t designing offenses for it.”

Helping the 49ers’ cause against Green Bay was Frank Gore who ran for 119 yards (the 49ers set a franchise playoff record with 323 rushing yards) and caught two passes for 48 yards. In his game column, The Chronicle’s Scott Ostler described Gore as “ancient.” Gore was 29 at the time; he is still playing at 36.

The victory put the 49ers back in the NFC Championship Game and Kaepernick on the national map. He would go on to lead the team to victory on the road in Atlanta and famously lose the Super Bowl to Baltimore when three passes to Michael Crabtree in the end zone failed.

After the Green Bay game, Kaepernick was asked whether he was a running quarterback or a passing quarterback.

“I don’t want to be categorized,” he said.

His mark was made. He landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated the next week. He was called revolutionary. Within weeks of the 49ers’ Super Bowl loss, the 49ers traded Smith to Kansas City, removing any doubt they were wedded to Kaepernick.

By the following summer’s training camp Kaepernick was being called “one of the greatest quarterbacks ever” by ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski.

And though Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman tried to make him more of a pocket passer in the 2013 season, Kaepernick was still effective. He led his team to the NFC Championship Game again, winning at Green Bay and Carolina before losing in Seattle in the championship game.

But the next season, in 2014, he struggled. The team won only eight games and missed the playoffs. Kaepernick seemed unhappy and behaved in a surly public manner. The next year he was injured and started only eight games.

In 2016, coming off three surgeries, he didn’t begin the season as the starter. But he started the final 11, winning just one under Chip Kelly. Despite the team’s failings, Kaepernick became one of the most famous athletes in the world due to his decision to protest social injustice by taking a knee during the national anthem.

However, his time with the 49ers was clearly at its end, and it had little to do with politics or performance. Offensive whiz kid Kyle Shanahan arrived with his own vision and specifications; Kaepernick was told he didn’t fit into the new coach’s plans, and he became a free agent.

Editor's Note

Bay Area sports experienced unprecedented success over the past 10 years. As we turn the page into 2020, The Chronicle counts down the Top 10 moments of the decade and more. Relive the memories at sfchronicle.com/sports

He has not played in the NFL since, effectively blackballed by the owners. He settled a collusion grievance with the league this year. He says he still would like to play. And anyone with memories of that Green Bay game can understand why.

A lightning rod always, Kaepernick was a lightning bolt in that first playoff game, striking the league in ways we couldn’t predict.

Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: akillion@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion

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