Why Colin Kaepernick Isn’t Playing in the XFL

Colin Kaepernick has made it clear he wants to play football again. He hasn’t been with an NFL team since opting out of his deal with the San Francisco 49ers after the 2016 season, but could the XFL be an option? League commissioner Oliver Luck was asked about Kaepernick not playing in the XFL and he said the salary demands were too high.

“We gave it some thought,” Luck said to NPR, according to CBS Sports. “We have some pretty significant salary restrictions, you know. We’re a start-up league, so we want to make sure that we can be fiscally responsible and fiscally prudent. And the, you know, salary requirements that some folks, you know, shared with us were in our case exorbitant, so we, you know, couldn’t go down that path.”

“We spoke with his representative, and the salary requirements that were broached in that conversation were exorbitant and certainly out of our range.”

This isn’t anything new for Kaepernick as he reportedly asked for $20 million to join the now-defunct Alliance of American Football. It’s not known if Kaepernick asked for the same amount or more to join the XFL, and Luck is not sure if he would consider bringing him in for a lower rate.

“I don’t know,” Luck said. “That was well over a year ago, so I don’t know what kind of shape, you know, Colin is in. And, you know, we haven’t followed that because obviously, again, we want the best players who are interested in playing in our league. That’s, you know, pretty much a requisite for our job.”

In November of last year, the NFL invited the former 49ers quarterback to a private workout in front of at least 25 teams at the Atlanta Falcons headquarters. However, Kaepernick decided to have a public workout at a local high school in the Atlanta area.

“I’ve been ready for three years,” Kaepernick said to reporters after the workout. “I’ve been denied for three years. We all know why I came out here. [I] showed it today in front of everybody. We have nothing to hide. So we’re waiting for the 32 owners, 32 teams, Roger Goodell, all of them stop running. Stop running from the truth. Stop running from the people.

“We’re out here. We’re ready to play. We’re ready to go anywhere. My agent, Jeff Nalley, is ready to talk [to] any team. I’ll interview with any team at any time. I’ve been ready.”