49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was drafted by the Cubs in 2009

Our friends over at Pro Football Talk have a whole bunch of good stuff about Colin Kaepernick’s impressive first NFL start for the 49ers last night, but there’s also an interesting little baseball connection.

Back in 2009 when Kaepernick was in college at Nevada the Cubs drafted him in the 43rd round as a pitcher despite his not having played baseball since high school.

As a high school senior in California he threw two no-hitters and had a whole bunch of baseball scholarship offers, but Carrie Muskat of MLB.com has some quotes that made it clear Kaepernick never seriously considered going pro with the Cubs:

Not if football was going to work for me. Out of high school, if I got a football scholarship, that’s what I was going to do. That was part of my scholarship deal with Nevada. I told them, “If I sign here, I won’t enter the Major League Draft.” So, I declined it out of high school and actually got drafted three years later when I hadn’t picked up a baseball in three years.

Kaepernick was a stud quarterback at Nevada and now looks likely to be the 49ers’ long-term starter, whether that begins next week or next season.