Adopted NFL Star's Birth Mom Struggles to Reconnect on Twitter

Twenty-five years ago, Heidi Russo gave her first-born son up for adoption. Two weeks ago, he became an NFL star.

As Colin Kaepernick emerges as one of the league's hottest young quarterbacks for the San Francisco 49ers, Russo watches from a distance and wonders what might have been. In interviews with national and Bay Area news outlets, she sounds secure in her decision, but burdened by a painful understanding of his tepid responses to her efforts at reconnecting.

When Russo gave Kaepernick up for adoption back in the late 1980s she was, as Bay Area News Group columnist Monte Poole writes, "a pregnant 18-year-old in Wisconsin carrying a biracial child fathered by a man to whom she was not married." Kapernick's rise to stardom since he put on a dazzling show in his first NFL start on Monday Night Football on Nov. 19 has thrust Russo's story and heartache into the national spotlight. But Russo, who is now a registered nurse and lives in Colorado, also tried to make contact before his newfound fame.

It's not just prying reporters who are turning the spotlight on her, though; Russo's own Twitter account offers a powerful window into her simultaneous alienation and longing for connection. Her recent tweets to Kaepernick could pass for those of any fan, but come with an emotional subtext:

Of course, Russo's tweets have also attracted some sports trolls who have criticized her desire for a deeper relationships with the son she gave up a quarter-century ago. "He is not your boy, your son, your family. He has a real mom and you are not her. #badmoms," wrote user @Gorilla_Hunter. Others, however, have offered Russo support and shared similar stories of their own.

Sports draw such rapt attention from so many largely thanks to the parallels and insight they offer into other, more serious facets of human existence. And social media has over the past few years offered a much deeper window into the everyday lives of the athletes we follow. Here, we have a poignant intersection of the two.

Russo's tweets: touching, or too much? Give us your take in the comments.

Image credit: Getty Images/Getty Images Sport/Chris Graythen

Source: http://mashable.com/2012/12/05/nfl-colin-kaepernick-birth-mom-twitter/

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