Quick Take
- Narration: Colin Kaepernick narrating his own story gives the memoir an immediacy no hired narrator could replicate, the full ensemble cast, including Jaden Michael, makes the audio-drama format genuinely immersive.
- Themes: Identity, self-determination, the cost of choosing authenticity over expectation, race and belonging in predominantly white spaces
- Mood: Warm and reflective, with moments of real tension when the pressure to conform peaks
- Verdict: A sharp, honest audio memoir for teens navigating their own versions of the same pressure Kaepernick describes.
I put this on during a morning walk, expecting something brief and motivational and finished it before I had gone three miles. At an hour and thirty-two minutes, Change the Game is one of the shortest productions in this batch, but Kaepernick and his ensemble cast use the time precisely. This is not a book about football or about protests or about the NFL controversy that made Kaepernick a cultural flashpoint. It is a book about a specific decision he faced as a seventeen-year-old baseball pitcher in a high school in Turlock, California, and it turns out that decision, whether to follow the path everyone had mapped for him or to bet on what he actually wanted, is one of the most universal stories available to a young listener.
The Audible Original format allows the audio production to treat this as something closer to a drama than a conventional memoir. A full cast of more than twenty performers, including Jaden Michael, who played Kaepernick in the Netflix series Colin in Black and White, give the production texture that reading the graphic memoir alone cannot replicate. Available in Dolby Atmos on Audible, the spatial audio design is reportedly well-suited to the ensemble material.
Our Take on Change the Game
The center of the book is a tension most listeners will recognize even if they have never held a baseball: the gap between what you are good at and what you actually want. Kaepernick was heavily scouted, legitimately talented, and genuinely uninterested in the future that talent was supposed to require him to pursue. Everyone around him, parents, coaches, teachers, saw the path clearly. He looked at the same path and felt nothing. The audiobook is honest about how frightening that misalignment is, and it does not pretend that following his own instinct was easy or obviously correct at the time.
The racial dimension of Kaepernick’s story is handled with specificity rather than abstraction. His identification with Allen Iverson, talented, hyper-competitive, unapologetically Black, is not simply a celebrity reference but a statement about what kind of athlete and person he wanted to be. Growing up as a transracial adoptee in a white family, in a predominantly white community, the question of where he belonged was not metaphorical. It was the condition of his daily life. One reviewer noted that reading the book as an adoptive parent opened conversations about standing up for yourself and calling people out when they make mistakes. That is the kind of real-life resonance that signals a book is doing something more than entertainment.
Why Listen to Change the Game
The full cast makes a genuine difference at this runtime. Kaepernick alone for ninety minutes might have felt like a long monologue. With Jaden Michael and the ensemble giving voice to different figures in his life, coaches, family members, fellow players, the production breathes in ways that conventional memoir narration rarely achieves. The Dolby Atmos version, for listeners who have access to it, reportedly adds a layered quality to the crowd and athletic scenes that suits the graphic memoir’s visual sensibility.
What to Watch For in Change the Game
At ninety-two minutes, this will leave some listeners wanting more. The book is adapted from a graphic memoir, and the audio-drama format compresses and reimagines rather than reading the text wholesale. Listeners expecting a comprehensive life story or an account of Kaepernick’s NFL career will need to look elsewhere, this is a focused narrative about a single pivot point, and it is disciplined about staying within that frame. That discipline is a strength, but it does mean the production ends before the story of what happened next begins.
Who Should Listen to Change the Game
Middle school and high school listeners are the natural audience, particularly student athletes navigating conflicting expectations from coaches, parents, and their own instincts. Families with transracial adoption in their history will find the book opens specific and valuable conversations. Adults who want a compact, honest young adult memoir with genuine production values, and who do not need it to be longer than it needs to be, will find this satisfying on its own terms.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this audiobook appropriate for middle school listeners, or is it better suited to high school?
The content is appropriate for middle school and up. The themes, identity, athletic pressure, racial identity, family expectation, are handled honestly but without graphic content. Several reviewers specifically recommended it for middle schoolers. The ninety-minute runtime also makes it manageable for younger listeners.
Does Colin Kaepernick narrate the entire audiobook himself?
Kaepernick narrates as himself, but the Audible Original uses a full cast of more than twenty performers to voice other figures in the story. Jaden Michael, who played Kaepernick in the Netflix series Colin in Black and White, is among the cast members.
Is this audiobook about Kaepernick’s NFL career and his decision to kneel during the national anthem?
No. The book focuses specifically on a decision he faced as a high school senior in Turlock, California, whether to pursue baseball, where he had legitimate scholarship opportunities, or to bet on football, where he had none. His NFL career and the anthem protests are not part of this story.
What does it mean that this is an audio adaptation of a graphic memoir?
The original work by Kaepernick is a graphic novel, illustrated panels with dialogue and narration. The Audible version reimagines that format as an audio drama with a full cast rather than simply reading the text aloud. The Dolby Atmos version adds spatial audio design that suits the dramatic format.
