The XFL officially got underway on Saturday and it appears to be off to a booming start. Their debut game drew 3.3 million viewers on ABC. All four games had over 17,000 in attendance.
If there’s one thing the league is missing, it’s a big-time name at the quarterback position.
The XFL approached former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick about joining and starring in their league, but according to commissioner Oliver Luck, Kaepernick’s salary demands ruled out any chance of it happening.
“We gave it some thought,” Luck said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “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 salary requirements that some folks shared with us were in our case exorbitant, so we 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.”
Luck was also asked if the XFL would reconsider its stance on Kaepernick if he lowered his demands:
“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.”
The AP reported last year that Kaepernick wanted $20 million to join the AAF or the XFL.
Even if he wanted to join the XFL, Kaepernick would have to be willing to stop kneeling for the anthem, since the XFL requires all players to stand. Kaepernick took a knee in protest of police brutality and social injustice.
Kaepernick last played in the NFL in 2016. He’s barely received any interest from NFL teams, but has been training and keeping his body in football shape.
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