Colin Kaepernick confirmed he has been a vegan for approximately nine months.

Kaepernick has lost noticeable mass in the offseason while rehabbing from three surgeries and is not back to his previous playing weight.

Kaepernick said he made the decision because of ethics and he feels much healthier because of it.

Kaepernick’s girlfriend, MTV “Code Girl” star Nessa Diab, host of a nationally syndicated radio show, recently discussed their choices of a vegan lifestyle.

“He's also a vegan with me,” Diab said of Kaepernick on a video posted to the MTV2 Facebook page in June. “We did it together. Because we feel like, it's true that, I guess, the more animal products you eat and stuff like that, your body becomes more acidic, which allows more diseases to basically breed within you.

“So the more alkaline state that your body is in, the less likely you are to get some type of diseases. The more alkaline, the better you are health-wise, supposedly.”

Kaepernick underwent surgeries to his left shoulder, right thumb and left knee that kept him unable to resume his usual work in the weight room during the offseason. Kelly said Kaepernick is not back to his playing weight of previous seasons.

“He’s not and obviously you understand that because he did have three surgeries, so he’s limited in the type of lifting he does,” Kelly said. “So he’s not the same size he was when he played. I don’t know the exact playing weight he was at, because I wasn’t here before. But, he’ll be the first to tell you that, that’s he’s not where he was before.”

Seventy percent of African-American men comprise NFL rosters despite representing only six percent of the United States' population.

While the majority of NFL players are black, the NFL fan base is 83 percent white and 64 percent male.

The NFL has no African-Americans who are a majority owner of a team and no African-American CEOs or Presidents.

Colin Kaepernick has received criticism from many of his fellow NFL players and fans for his protest of the treatment of people of color in the United States by not standing for the national anthem.

Players and coaches remained in the locker room during the national anthem until the 2009 NFL season.

The topic of national anthems have come up over the past few days with Colin Kaepernick taking a social protest by not standing.

Kaepernick has drawn attention to the treatment of African-Americans.

Colin Kaepernick is refusing to stand for the national anthem before games because he believes the United States oppresses African Americans and other minorities.

Kaepernick sat on the team's bench Friday night during the anthem before the Niners played host to the Green Bay Packers in an exhibition game. He later explained his reasoning in an interview with NFL Media.

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick said. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

Christian Ponder has signed a one-year deal with the San Francisco 49ers.

Ponder was signed by the Broncos towards the end of the 2015 season to serve as third-string quarterback when Peyton Manning was injured.

The 49ers lost Thad Lewis for the season with a torn ACL and Colin Kaepernick has also been dealing with arm soreness.

Colin Kaepernick is dealing with some shoulder soreness as a result of "arm fatique," according to Chip Kelly.

Kaepernick will be limited in practice on Friday after taking Thursday off, but the San Francisco 49ers are hopefully that he'll play in the preseason opener on Sunday.

"Just getting him back up to throwing every day. That's why we had planned on actually taking yesterday off," Kelly said. "We knew that going in, he didn't throw during the spring full, because of coming off of it (surgery) so it's just trying to get his arm back up to where we can just use him every day. If we've got to take a day off in between, it's not a real big deal."

NaVorro Bowman has agreed upon a seven-year, $77 million extension with the San Francisco 49ers.

Bowman returned in 2015 after being out all of 2014. Bowman had three seasons left on the deal.

The deal includes $20 million in guaranteed money.