Colin Kaepernick helps to honor his high school coach on May 30. (Getty Images)

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is certainly the Bay Area's most exciting young passer these days. The second-year man from Nevada took over for Alex Smith last November, and brought a team that seemed a great quarterback away from the Super Bowl to that precise destination. The 49ers' 34-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII took none of the bloom off the rose, and the team seems in very good shape for the next few years with a smart signal-caller who can run linebackers to total fatigue and make every throw destined to drive cornerbacks crazy.

As it turns out, Kaepernick -- who was selected in the second round of the 2011 NFL draft by the 49ers -- was very much on the radar of northern California's other NFL team. As SI.com's Peter King wrote in his most recent MMQB column, the Oakland Raiders, then led by head coach Hue Jackson, had Kaepernick set as their top quarterback prospect. Yes, ahead of the five quarterbacks who preceded Kaepernick in that draft -- Cam Newton, Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder, and Andy Dalton.

"Coach Jackson told me before the draft they were going to do everything they could to try to get me,'' said Kaepernick from a Turlock, Calif. retirement ceremony for Brandon Harris, Kaepernick's high-school coach. "I thought there was a good chance they'd pick me. I never heard anything from the 49ers before the draft after I worked out for them [at Nevada]. I just figured they weren't interested."

The 49ers became interested in Kaepernick after the Nevada star developed a friendship with Andrew Luck, who 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh coached at Stanford, at the Manning Passing Academy. Kaepernick later said that he thought he "pissed [Harbaugh] off" during his workout because it ended abruptly, but it's more likely that Harbaugh had seen all he needed to see. So, with the 45th pick in the 2011 draft and full knowledge that the Raiders wanted Kaepernick, Harbaugh and 49ers general manager Trent Baalke started putting a trade up in motion.

From King's story:

Baalke called the Patriots, who owned the first pick of the second round, and offered two third-round picks (one in '11, one in '12) to move up 12 spots. New England wanted one of the thirds to be a second. No dice, Baalke said. Oakland called New England too, and failed to get the pick. "When we talked internally,'' Jackson said, "we knew we needed to fortify the offensive line, and we really liked Stefan Wisniewski. I think [Al Davis] felt we'd get a lineman who we figured could play for us for 10 years, then we had two third-round picks, and we'd try to move up late in the second round or higher in the third and try to get Colin."

But the 49ers knew the Raiders loved Kaepernick; it'd been in the media before the draft. So they kept working the top of the second round, and finally got the Broncos, at 36, to bite. Good price, too: It didn't cost the Niners two third-round picks to move up; it cost fourth- and fifth-rounders. "When they made the trade,'' Jackson said, "I knew exactly what they were going to do. They were going to take Colin."

Rick Kaepernick, Colin's father, told King that Al Davis threw a glass across the room in anger when the 49ers made the pick.

"I don't know that he threw anything,'' Hue Jackson told King. "But he was upset. So was I. Scouting him, I fell in love with the kid. Leader, won a ton of games at Nevada, really impressive when you talked to him, strong, all the tools to win in the NFL. No doubt in my mind he was going to be good.''

Kaepernick scrambles in Super Bowl XLVII. As a Raider, he would have watching from the stands. (Getty Images)

But would he have been good -- or, at least, as good -- with the Raiders? Oakland fired Hue Jackson in January of 2012 after just one season (a move that has caused our buddy Mike Silver all sorts of agita), and Dennis Allen, Jackson's replacement, put Greg Knapp in charge of a 2012 Raiders offense that finished 23rd in Football Outsiders' opponent-adjusted offensive metrics, and 20th in passing. Knapp lasted one season, and has been replaced by Greg Olson. The Raiders finished 17th in passing the year before, and the team is now in severe

(Getty Images)

Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, who played in four Super Bowls with the Buffalo Bills and put together one of the more impressive careers of his era, announced Monday that he has Squamous-cell carcinoma (cancer) of the upper jaw bone. Kelly's statement, per the Bills' official website:

“This past couple of weeks has been difficult for me and because of the nature of social media I thought it would be best to share with everyone what has been going on with my health. I was recently diagnosed with Squamous-cell carcinoma (cancer) of the upper jaw bone. I have undergone tests which have shown that the cancer is isolated to my upper jaw and has not spread to other parts of my body. Surgery is scheduled for June 7th and doctors have told me that the prognosis for my recovery is very good.

"With the excellent medical care that I will be receiving and the loving care of my wife Jill and my daughters Erin and Camryn and the support of my entire family and friends, I am extremely confident in my road to recovery. I plan to tackle this challenge head on, as we Kelly’s always do, with toughness, perseverance and faith.

"I want to thank everyone who has offered their prayers and would appreciate any prayers said for me and my family moving forward. May God continue to bless you and our family.”

"When you hear the word cancer, it scares the crap out of you," Kelly told Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News on Monday at the Terry Hills Golf Course in Batavia, N.Y. "It not only scared me, but it scared my family."

Kelly was hosting his annual "Kelly for Kids" golf tournament through his foundation, which he started to help disadvantaged and disabled youth in Western New York. Kelly's son Hunter was born in 1997 with Krabbe Disease, an inherited degenerative disorder of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Hunter died in 2005, but the "Hunter's Hope" charity, which Kelly and his wife started the same year Hunter was born, raised more than $6 million, and granted more than $3.8 million to neurological research, during the child's life.

Selected with the 14th pick in the 1983 NFL draft, Kelly played two seasons for the USFL's Houston Gamblers before joining the Bills in time for the 1986 season. He appeared in four straight Super Bowls from the 1990 through 1993 seasons, and though the Bills lost each of those games, Kelly is rightly regarded as one of the best quarterbacks of his generation, as well as a pioneer of the no-huddle offense at the NFL level.

Everyone at Shutdown Corner wishes Jim Kelly a fast and full recovery. We send our thoughts and prayers to Kelly and all who are close to him.

We don't think Donovan McNabb should be playing celebrity kickball, either. (Getty Images)

Former NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb had one season with the Washington Redskins, and it did not go well. McNabb, who made a Super Bowl, five NFC championship games, and six Pro Bowls with the Philadelphia Eagles in an 11-year span that ended in 2009, was traded to Washington in April 2010, and didn't do all that much for Washington that year -- he completed 275 passes in 472 attempts for 3,377 yards, 14 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. He was traded to the Minnesota Vikings in July 2011, and he finished his career that season with just six games played that season.

That little disaster for the Redskins, which included the five-year, $78 million contract the Redskins gave McNabb in November 2010 and almost immediately regretted, put the franchise back on a quarterback search that effectively ended when three first-round picks were traded to the St. Louis Rams before the 2012 draft for the right to move up to the second overall pick and select Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III. There are injury concerns surrounding Griffin after his rookie campaign, but nobody would question what a healthy Griffin can do for the Redskins on the field.

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McNabb, now retired, seems to be very concerned about what Griffin is doing off the field. In a recent interview with Mike Wise of the Washington Post, McNabb said that Griffin needs to slow his roll.

“It’s too much right now; it’s just too much," McNabb told Wise. "I get some of things he’s doing to draw attention to himself: the Adidas commercials, going out and enjoying the life of a young, famous NFL quarterback. I understand RG has a lot of stuff going on. But if you’re coming off ACL surgery, you don’t need to be having a press conference at OTAs. Every week? Really? It becomes a circus, a sideshow. It takes away from the focus of what those sessions are supposed to be about: the team.”

McNabb then went on to say that in Philadelphia under head coach Andy Reid, players recovering from injuries were never the focus. He had an issue with Griffin saying how well he's doing after offseason knee surgery, and criticized Griffin's father for a recent interview in which the elder Griffin said that he'd like to see his son pass the ball more and perhaps run the ball less.

“You can’t say what he said because it almost undermines his son, who has to answer all the questions about it later," McNabb said. "Now, we all know what he said was right. But that’s something you voice behind closed doors because otherwise it creates a wedge that didn’t have to be there. No team needs those kinds of things hovering over them.

“I would really like for me and my dad to sit down with he and his dad just to tell them what we went through and talk about our experiences.”

It should be pointed out that McNabb's advice is completely unsolicited -- he told Wise that he tried to reach out to Griffin last season, but the proposed hookup never happened. So, the ex-NFL star is apparently reduced to providing life advice to Griffin from his Arizona home. This advice included a rebuke to Griffin for accepting gifts fans recently bought for RG3 and his fiancee', Rebecca Liddicoat, on the couple's Bed, Bath & Beyond registry. Griffin and Liddicoat did not ask for the gifts from fans, and wrote thank-you notes later, but McNabb wasn't impressed.

Antonio Cromartie leaves the Jets facility on April 15. In a Prius. Really. (AP)

Through most of his first seven years in the NFL. New York Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie was the league's poster child for irresponsibility. The 2006 first-round pick of the San Diego Chargers spent, by his own estimation, at least $5 million in his first two NFL seasons, and fathered 10 children with eight different women -- so many children, he famously had trouble remembering all their names in one of the 2010 "Hard Knocks" episodes featuring the Jets. In 2011, Cromartie signed a four-year, $32 million contract that had the team thinking of jettisoning him two years later -- but with the April trade of Darrelle Revis, Cromartie is locked in as the Jets' lockdown cornerback, for better or worse.

What's unusual about Cromartie's current situation is that he's made a lot of positive changes in his life over the last couple years. He has two daughters with his wife, Terricka, and the former profligate spender has put things in order, financially. The same guy who once owned two Dodge Chargers, two BMWs, two Escalades, and a 1965 Chevy Caprice (estimated cost: at least $400,000 total) and had to be talked out of purchasing a $500,000 Lamborghini, is now driving a Prius, per an intriguing story from Newsday's Bob Glauber. Now, Cromartie counsels younger players, warning them to avoid his past mistakes.

"I want to help others learn from what I did wrong," he told Glauber. "I tell the young guys, 'Don't spend any money the first year and a half of your career. You don't know what will happen after that. You might be released. You might be hurt. Just save your money."

It's important advice. As Glauber points out, a 2009 Sports Illustrated survey indicated that nearly 80 percent of former NFL players -- even the most highly-compensated ones -- will go into bankruptcy.

Cromartie started avoiding that seeming inevitability a few years ago when his then-agent, the late Gary Wichard, recommended that he talk to Jonathan Schwartz, a CPA with the Los Angeles-based financial services company GSO Business Management. Schwartz not only encouraged Cromartie to be smarter with his money, he also showed the NFL veteran just how to do it. Schwartz, who is married with three children, invited Cromartie to stay at his home for a few weeks.

"[Cromartie] didn't surround himself with caring and loving people, and I wanted him to see me and my family and realize I cared about him. I wanted him to see a family life," Schwartz told Glauber. "My intention was to show him that there are people who love you for who you are, not for how much you make. When I first met him, I saw a wonderful heart and human being that people were taking advantage of, and I wanted to be a part of seeing his personal growth. Part of that is financial discipline."

That changed a lot of lives. Cromartie became very close to Schwartz's children (they refer to him as "Uncle Antonio," per Glauber), and he agreed to follow a far more responsible financial paradigm.

(AP)

When former Baltimore Ravens cornerback Cary Williams signed a three-year, $17 million deal with the Philadelphia Eagles in March, it was a good gamble for the seventh-round pick in the 2008 NFL draft. Williams had turned down a $15 million offer from the Ravens the year before, and one Super Bowl win later, he got the most from the open market. Part of the reason he turned down Baltimore's earlier offer, Williams said, was that he was thinking about his household.

"It's good money, but my job is to make the most money I possibly can for my family," Williams told the Baltimore Sun last August. "I'm thinking about my daughter and any future children I want to have. I want some kind of security, and the deal we had wasn't like that."

Williams also cited his work ethic in that article, but the Eagles may be wondering if Williams' focus on family isn't cutting into his emphasis on football. In their minicamp report on Friday, the team listed absences and reasons, as is standard, but were very specific about the fact that Williams missed a voluntary team activity to attend his daughter's dance recital. Star offensive tackle Jason Peters was also absent, but his absence was listed as being due to personal reasons -- which is standard operating procedure. Perhaps the Eagles were peeved because Williams was a no-show on Friday, and the team had to call him to get the explanation -- he was attending the recital, which was in another state.

According to Philly.com, Williams also scheduled his wedding for the time normally reserved for spring practices, and attributed other absences to dental work and the construction of a new house.

Again, it should be emphasized that these early practices are not mandatory, but as Keyshawn Johnson once famously discovered, the whole concept of "voluntary mandatory" does speak volumes to teammates when players don't show up for reasons that don't pass muster. Especially when, as Rotoworld pointed out, "opponents threw for 1,000 yards, six touchdowns, and a 91.6 quarterback rating while targeting Williams" in the 2012 regular season. Williams also ranked 79th in Football Outsiders' Adjusted Success Rate metric against the pass, and finished 64th in Pro Football Focus' "Coverage Snaps per Reception" stat. So, a little practice could go a long way in his case.

Receiver Jason Avant, who is trying to make tracks in a new Eagles offense run by head coach Chip Kelly said that he wished Williams didn't miss so much time, "because at some point, you're going to need that person and you want them to be able to know what to do and be accountable when the season starts."

Avant, however, stopped short from questioning Williams' devotion to a team that is rebuilding on both sides of the ball.

It's long been a joke among NFL writers that you know you're in the club when you can type "Nnamdi Asomugha," and your spell-check doesn't skip a beat. The former Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles cornerback, who signed a one-year, $1.35 million contract with the San Francisco 49ers on April 2, is trying to stick on a very deep defensive roster and hopes to win a championship before his esteemed career comes to an end. Asomugha's getting used to San Francisco's smart and aggressive defense, but it seems that his new teammates are getting used to a name that's quite difficult to spell without a cheat sheet.

And in honor of Thursday's Scripps National Spelling Bee, won by 13-year-old Arvind Mahankali, the 49ers' media team decided to take to the locker room to see just how many ace spellers could nail the name of their new teammate.

It wasn't pretty at all.

Cornerback Carlos Rogers didn't really even try, second-year receiver A.J. Jenkins got as far as "N," despite the fact that Asomugha has already given him the correct spelling, and offensive lineman Joe Looney looked like he wanted to run away. Superstar linebacker Patrick Willis tripped over himself after a few letters, fullback Bruce Miller cheated with "A-W-E-S-O-M-E," and running back LaMichael James looked exceptionally confused.

Leave it to quarterback Colin Kaepernick, whose last name has broken a few spell-checkers along the way, to nail it on the first try. Well-done!

This is former Temple return specialist Matt Brown. (Getty Images)

Sometimes, when you don't get the things you want, something better comes along. That's what former Temple running back Matt Brown found out when he recently prepared to travel to Saskatchewan and sign with the Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. Brown, the 2012 Big East special teams player of the year, was most likely undrafted because of his size -- it's hard to know what to do with a 5-foot-5, 169-pound running back in the NFL -- but the CFL came calling. Problem was, Brown couldn't make his flight from Baltimore because his passport had expired.

Brown then went about the process of updating his passport in Philadelphia, but that's when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers called his agent, and asked him to come down to sign a contract. That's what he did on Wednesday, and now, the return specialist is in the NFL.

Brown's size may be a concern, but it's clear that he ran bigger than expected in college. He backed up current Baltimore Ravens standout Bernard Pierce through the his junior

Joe Flacco got what he wanted, but it wasn't always a sure thing. (AP)

On March 4, one month and one day after the Baltimore Ravens won Super Bowl XLVII and quarterback Joe Flacco put forth an MVP performance in the biggest game of his life, the team rewarded the player with a six-year, $120.6 million contract that guaranteed him $52 million. The new contract ostensibly puts Flacco in Baltimore through the 2018 season, though a series of huge annual base salaries from 2016 through 2018 ($18 million/$20.6 million/$20 million) scream "restructure." It seemed that everything was good between team and player, but the recent public opinion given by Joe Linta, Flacco's agent, took some of the shine off the story.

Linta told USA Today's Jim Corbett that in the interest of avoiding a $1 million charge in the final year of a contract offered before the 2012 season started, the Ravens walked away from securing Flacco's services for less than they eventually did.

"I've never in my life seen a dumber move," Linta said. "I guess people can say, 'Well, Joe was dumb, too.' It could have been [dumb], God forbid, if he got hurt. But $1 million to [team owner] Steve Bisciotti six years from now? That's like 100 bucks for you or me today.''

Linta later tried a little damage control, but the appearance was not good. Especially when Tom Brady and Peyton Manning were re-doing their contracts to improve the salary cap situations for their teams.

And as WNST radio man Nestor Aparicio wrote in his recent book, "Purple Reign 2: Faith, Family & Football – A Baltimore Love Story," it was Bisciotti who tried one last-ditch shot at a new contract for Flacco after Flacco and Linta turned down the original deal, which would have given Flacco an annual $1 million bonus if the Ravens won a Super Bowl during the contract, and a $2 million annual bonus if the Ravens won two Super Bowls. Bisciotti said that he had not talked to Flacco at all about his contract, but now, the stakes were higher, and he decided to intervene with a head-to-head in his office at the team's Owings Mills, Md. facility:

“There are two things here that I don’t understand,” Bisciotti said to Flacco. “I don’t understand why you’re walking away from this deal? As maligned as you are in the press and as little faith as so many pundits have in you, we’re offering you a $90 million deal and you can go wave that in their face and say, ‘F**k you guys! See, the Ravens DO believe in me!’”

Flacco was nonplussed. “I really don’t care about my critics,” he bluntly told the Ravens owner.

Bisciotti was exasperated. “I don’t understand it. Joe, don’t you think you’d play better with a clear head and having this contract behind you?” he continued. “You won’t have to answer questions from anybody, and you can just focus on playing and winning the Super Bowl.”