DHL Dan - XVIII

With thousands of media members in New Orleans this week to cover the Super Bowl, it's sometimes difficult to come up with original things to write about. Yesterday's Shank column does not disappoint in this area.

NEW ORLEANS — He is an athletic savant, the guy who can do anything on any field or court.

In his senior year of high school, Colin Kaepernick was nominated for all-state in basketball, baseball, and football. That’s in California, where there are several good scholastic athletes.

As a hoopster, Kaepernick scored 34 points in a state tournament playoff game. Baseball? He threw 92 miles per hour and was drafted by the Chicago Cubs. But he really loved football. So he went to the University of Nevada, where he ran the “Pistol Formation” and starred for the Wolf Pack of the Western Athletic Conference.

Kaepernick was a second-round draft pick (36th overall) in 2011 and didn’t start a game in the NFL until last Nov. 19. He has started only nine games.

Sunday night, he will call the shots for the favored San Francisco 49ers against the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII.