Colin Kaepernick’s story as one of the most prominent athlete-activists of his generation is widely known, but the circumstances of his birth and the identities of his biological parents remain far less understood. He was born on November 3, 1987, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to a 19-year-old white woman named Heidi Russo and a Black man whose name has never been publicly confirmed. Because his biological father was not present in the picture, Russo made the difficult decision to place her infant son for adoption, personally selecting Rick and Teresa Kaepernick—a white couple from Wisconsin—to raise him.
Kaepernick was adopted at just six weeks old, in December 1987, and grew up in a loving but racially complex household where he was the only Black member of his immediate family. His biological mother and father occupy very different places in the public record: Russo has spoken openly about her decision and her ongoing desire for connection, while the identity and whereabouts of his biological father have remained an unresolved mystery, even to Kaepernick himself.
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Heidi Russo: The Birth Mother Who Chose Adoption
Heidi Russo was 19 years old and unmarried when she gave birth to Colin in Milwaukee. Her parents, Phyllis and James Zabransky, have said they believed throughout her pregnancy that she would keep the baby and had offered to help raise him, but Russo ultimately changed her mind and chose adoption.
She personally selected Rick and Teresa Kaepernick as the adoptive parents, wanting her son to have a life she felt she could not provide at the time. Russo, who later became a nurse and lived in Denver, has described the decision as one of the toughest she has ever made. She has maintained sporadic written contact with Colin over the years but has never met him face-to-face; in 2012, she attended a 49ers–Broncos preseason game where she met with Rick and Teresa but did not meet her son.
In interviews, Russo has said she respects Colin’s decision about whether or not to have a relationship with her, and has spoken warmly of the Kaepernicks, saying they “couldn’t ask for better people” to have raised him. Colin himself has described any potential relationship with his birth mother as feeling like a betrayal of the couple who raised him, and he has kept his distance.
The Biological Father: An Unconfirmed Identity
The identity of Colin Kaepernick’s biological father has never been publicly revealed. What is known is that he is a Black man of Ghanaian, Nigerian, and Ivorian descent, and that he had already separated from Heidi Russo by the time Colin was born. Russo’s parents have stated they never met the man and do not even know who he is, and Russo herself has said she knows his identity and whereabouts but is not prepared to share that information, noting that he “has never acknowledged his son.”
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According to her parents, the only details they possess are that he was Black and approximately 6 feet 2 inches tall. Colin Kaepernick has never had a relationship with his biological father, and the man’s name remains absent from public records and from Kaepernick’s own public statements about his background. This absence has shaped part of Kaepernick’s lifelong exploration of his racial identity, a theme he explored in the Netflix series Colin in Black & White and in his graphic novel Change the Game.
The story of Colin Kaepernick’s biological parents is ultimately a story of two very different absences: a birth mother who gave him up but has never stopped hoping for connection, and a birth father whose identity remains a deliberate silence. What filled that space was the Kaepernick family, who adopted him as an infant and raised him into the figure he became—while the questions about where he came from have never been fully answered.
