49ers apologise to Kaepernick for photo gallery omission

SAN FRANCISCO: The San Francisco 49ers apologised on Friday for initially leaving former quarterback Colin Kaepernick out of a photo gallery that displayed exploits of previous games against the Green Bay Packers.

The 49ers were celebrating their history against the Packers — who they play tomorrow night – on the team website with dozen of photos but none included Kaepernick, who led San Francisco to playoff victories over Green Bay after the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

That omission has since been changed.

“Unfortunately there were a handful of obvious misses in this gallery posted by our website team and we appreciate them being brought to our attention,” the 49ers said in a statement. “The 49ers organisation has tremendous respect and gratitude for the contributions Colin made to our team over the years.”

The lack of Kaepernick photos stood out since he enjoyed some memorable performances against Green Bay.

Kaepernick rushed for an NFL quarterback-record 181 yards in a playoff victory on Jan. 12, 2013; passed for 412 yards in a seasonopening win in 2013 and led the 49ers on the decisive scoring drive in a playoff triumph on Jan 5, 2014.

“We have fond memories of those games and that should have been displayed on our website,” the 49ers said. “This oversight does not properly reflect the appreciation our ownership and this team have for Colin.”

Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in the preseason prior to the 2016 campaign to protest social injustice. He opted out of his contract following the season and hasn’t been signed by any club over the past two seasons. He has an active collusion grievance against the league contending owners have conspired to keep him from being signed.

When the 49ers recently lost starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo with a season-ending knee injury, San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan wasn’t interested in considering Kaepernick’s return and said he didn’t fit the team’s style of offense.