Kaepernick needs to start embracing fans

Sports fodder for a Friday morning ... Colin Kaepernick needs to take a step or two back, catch his breath, collect himself and realize exactly what has happened to his life in the last year. He is no longer little Colin from Turlock, Calif., with the great smile, amazing athletic ability and engaging, friendly personality.

He isn’t even unknown Colin of the Nevada Wolf Pack with the great smile, amazing athletic ability and engaging, friendly personality. He is now Colin the Great, Super Bowl quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, the Pistol God with the GQ smile and body who was blessed from above with otherworldly athletic ability. He must learn to use his powers for good. So when fans complain that they don’t like him wearing a hat of another NFL team, he needs to respect that and just chalk it up to the silliness of the unwashed, uneducated, ungifted masses. You don’t come out on Twitter and tell those fans that they must be bored, that they are ridiculous and that you will wear whatever swag you want to wear regardless of what they think.

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Just because you tattoo the word “Faith” on your bicep and kiss it every time you score a touchdown doesn’t mean you can do or say whatever you want without the public reacting to it. Kaepernick needs to tone it down a little bit.

No more photos with bikini-clad women. No more pictures of any type with your shirt off. No more pictures with your pants off. No more photos wearing a Miami Dolphins’ hat while the San Francisco 49ers are paying you millions of dollars.

What’s next? A date with a Kardashian? A party at Lindsay Lohan’s house? A workout video with Terrell Owens? Dinner in North Korea with Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong Un? Stop being a jerk with the media. Stop being annoyed with your fans. Yes, fans and the media are ridiculous. But that’s our job. We want to take your picture when you are shopping for hats and sneakers at the mall. We ask questions and expect answers longer than it takes for you to look annoyed and grunt. Don’t forget that without the ridiculous people in the world, the Gods with the GQ smiles, bodies and athletic abilities wouldn’t make millions of dollars for simply running around with a football in their tattooed arms.

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It is time Major League Baseball makes a few changes in its All Star selection process. Just starting pitchers and closers in the All Star game. No more set-up men and middle relievers. No more Brett Cecils and Jesse Crains. And quit making sure that every team is represented. Every team does not have an All Star. Nobody wants to see Jason Castro or Marco Scutaro with his two homers and 19 RBI in an All Star game. Believe it or not, Houston Astros fans will watch the All Star game even if one of their hometown heroes isn’t in the game. In fact, they might be more inclined to watch because it is a break from the drudgery of the regular season.

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Don’t be shocked if the Nevada Wolf Pack football team goes down to the Rose Bowl on Aug. 31 and beats UCLA. Pac-12 teams are notorious for not preparing for the Wolf Pack. See Cal in 2010 and 2012. Arizona in 2012. Washington in 2003. Even Cal in 1996 and Oregon in 1996, 1997 and 2003. The Pack played much better in those games than it should have. Wolf Pack quarterback Cody Fajardo said this week that it was obvious Arizona didn’t prepare for the Pack in last year’s New Mexico Bowl. And all the Pack did was roll up 48 points and 659 yards.

“I talked to a few friends of mine before the game who were on Arizona and they told me they weren’t really preparing to face the Pistol,” Fajardo said. “I just told them, ‘You better prepare for the Pistol.’”

UCLA is a very winnable game for the Pack.

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The Wolf Pack football team will likely have a nice, big crowd on Sept. 7 when the mighty UC Davis Aggies come to town. It will be coach Brian Polian’s first home game. The field at Mackay stadium will be dedicated to Chris Ault and the Pack will be coming off an amazing victory over UCLA. But it’s time the Pack stops playing Division I-AA (Football Championship Series) schools like Davis of the Big Sky Conference. It is not 1978 anymore. Nobody in Northern Nevada wants to pay to see UC Davis play football. It’s a no-win game for the Pack. Wins over a Davis mean absolutely nothing but a loss can ruin your confidence and season, especially at the box office. We understand that this is not Polian’s doing. This is another one of those Ault pad-your-record games that he was famous for throughout his career. But they have to stop.

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Major League Baseball is about to explode. And not in a good way. The Biogenesis performance enhancing drugs investigation is reportedly going to name two dozen or so players. The suspensions will likely affect all of the pennant races in the second half. Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez seem to be atop the list. But don’t expect those two to be the only big names. Baseball needs to make all of the names and suspensions known immediately after the All Star game. The trading deadline is fast approaching. It is only fair that teams are aware of which players who will be suspended in the second half before they make trades.

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Dwight Howard going to the Houston Rockets doesn’t make the Rockets instant NBA championship material. In fact, if the Rockets deal away Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin, they might be an even worse team next year. The Los Angeles Lakers are certainly going to win more games this season without Howard (if Kobe Bryant comes back healthy) than they did with him last year. Give the Lakers credit for showing to their fans (with billboards, newspaper ads, etc.) that they were making every effort to bring Howard back. But that was just window dressing. The Lakers didn’t want Howard back. If the Lakers would have really wanted Howard in purple and gold, Howard would be wearing purple and gold.