Colin Kaepernick is now connected to a third league. On the heels of an unspecified settlement with the NFL, the former 49ers quarterback is in discussions with the XFL, a league spokesman confirmed to Sporting News’ Michael McCarthy.
The 31-year-old passer, who has not played since the 2016 NFL season finale, was in talks with the Alliance of American Football as well.
A report indicated a Kaepernick-AAF relationship was scuttled by the quarterback’s salary demands. Kaepernick was believed to be seeking $20MM to play in the AAF, and McCarthy reports the same figure has surfaced in the XFL talks. Kaepernick, per McCarthy, is targeting $20MM to suit up in the XFL, which is set to respawn in 2020.
With the XFL salaries set to compare to the AAF’s, which has given non-guaranteed, three-year deals worth $250K, Kaepernick’s alleged demand would seemingly be a non-starter here as well. However, the XFL is planning to pay stars “a lot” more.
While anything in the neighborhood of $20MM may even escape the parameters of “a lot”, with McCarthy reporting the Vince McMahon-run operation is eyeing $250K-per-year salaries for starting quarterbacks, the XFL aligning with Kaepernick would obviously put it in position to strongly compete with the AAF and potentially capture interest of a sect of football fans turned off by the former Super Bowl starter’s inability to land an NFL job.
If nothing transpires on the Kaepernick-XFL front, the new league would be in position to woo better quarterback talent compared to the AAF — if, in fact, it can pay $250K salaries to starting QBs.
The word coming out of Kaepernick’s camp has consistently pointed to the passer wanting to continue his career. He has been linked to several NFL jobs, following injuries to starting quarterbacks, but nothing, obviously, led to another opportunity. Kaepernick’s attorney predicted his client would be on an NFL roster soon, even throwing out the Panthers and Patriots as possible landing spots.
I think it would be a smart business move to sign him. Personally I don’t like the way he went about things but in regards to money and marketing, I think this would be good for the startup of XFL to get publicity
I think its bad publicity regardless of ones beliefs about his actions. The focus wont be on the team but all eyes will be on him.
No such thing as bad publicity. Whatever gets the views.
And it’s Vince McMahon we’re talking about here. He definitely knows any publicity is good publicity.
Literally, the ONLY reason anyone in America is excited about the XFL is because they view it as a middle finger to Kaepernick and those who support him.
That would be fun.
Huh? How so?
Copy and paste from the story announcing the relaunching of the XFL:
“People don’t want social and political issues coming into play when they are trying to be entertained,” McMahon said. “We want someone who wants to take a knee to do their version of that on their personal time.”
Wow…I always hated Vince McMahon but I’m suddenly his biggest fan
20mil? Over how many seasons? Guess he will be claiming collusion against the AAF and XFL next
You know by far the most annoying thing about Kap articles are comments like this, been said hundreds of times, doesn’t add anything but I expect nothing less from you since when’s the last time you commented something that was actually worth reading?
“Being In talks with three leagues” means his agent told all three he wants $20mil/yr before even considering them…
Has the CFL tried to get Kapernick too? Serious question. No sarcasm.
That would be the 3rd league, since the NFL wants nothing to do with him.
Since Cuba has no pro football league and would only pay him $40/month if they did, Canada would be a great place for a guy that dislikes this country so much…
Why, so he can get free healthcare and not deal with fake patriotic fans who don’t believe police brutality is a problem?
Yeah police brutality is so much worse than dictators who killed hundreds of thousands to get to power. Starving their own people and forcing them to live in poverty. Theres a reason people flee there. Go live in Cuba and see how fast you beg to come back to America. Kap wearing a Castro shirt in Miami then getting blown up by Kiko Alonso on the last play of the game was beautiful to watch.
Should America strive to be the best or are we just going for “be better than Venezuela” now? Just because things are worse elsewhere doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fix all of our problems here and say “well look, it could be worse”. We will never have a truly equal society because people are content with the status quo. Anyways there are tons of people living in poverty in America because of the extreme financial inequality. And we have people being slaughtered in the street by the POLICE, who are supposed to protect us. America should be an example for other countries, we shouldn’t be just marginally better at not killing or starving our own people.
The ideas that police are slaughtering people in the streets is flat out not true. If you dont comply with what an officer is saying and do things like put you hands in your pockets bad things happen. Sure there are corrupt cops but if there is evidence then they go to prison for life. America is not marginally better than Cuba or Venezuela. Its monumentally better.
No, so we can live in a country where we can watch football instead of dealing with some clown’s societal agenda.
PolishHammer wouldn’t you hate where you lived if every day you walked outside you were at a disadvantage just because of how you look? Being of Polish descent in the US, I’m assuming you do not know the feeling, and neither do I (Im a white guy too). But failing to recognize that this happens to every person of color every single day in this country is so ignorant and elitist I can’t even begin to put it into words
Sounds great but he didn’t get in front of the cause. When sulking on the bench pouting about losing his job the cause got behind him and gave him an excuse. When wearing socks with pigs and police hats on them were noticed 3 weeks after the fact in photographs all of a sudden he wear them out of protest. And then showing up wearing a T-shirt of somebody responsible for killing thousands of Cubans while claiming to be against police brutality seemed like another grand idea. Don’t want to deal with police brutality then don’t force them to come into your neighborhood to respond to whatever it is they get called to respond to. Compare the number of black on black crimes with police on innocent victims and I’m sure they are nowhere near in the same ballpark. Oh, and when you’re telling me that people have a hard time in life because they’re a book being judged by its cover don’t just assume somebody’s racial or ethnic background because of a user ID.
That’s a Kneely good question!
Please let this happen! Kaepernick to the XFL. Week 1, Kaepernick on a roll out, can’t find his first option at receiver that he always locks into, he is unable to make his progressions (standard for Kaepernick), he attempts to run….. he rolls left…. he cuts right, he makes one juke…. and THE UNDERTAKER HAS HIM!! Oh no…. oh no… don’t do it taker…. its a choke slam!!!! Crowd goes wild. Wait…. who’s this??? It’s the ROCK!! Running sideline to sideline, he stops over Kaepernick motionless body…. it’s a…. PEOPLE’S ELBOW!!!
This was probably a lot funnier in your brain, it should have stayed there
I actually thought most of it was hilarious. Kudos to you for a good Kaepernick death joke!!!!!
That was awesome. I’d like to see him running down the opponents sidelines for a TD and from out of nowhere from the bench Randy Orton RKOs him
everyone does realize that that NFL settling with him and Eric Reid is basically an admission of collusion, right? The amazing thing is how open people are with their racism on public forums. Kapaernick stood up for something, while the rest of you, with your opinions and obvious racism stand for nothing. probably the same people that defend Kraft for visiting a place where slaves are made to do horrible things to ugly old WHITE men. get a job, the lot of you. you’re disgusting.
STFU
It was not an admission of guilt at all! Why didn’t Kap protest his so-called cause when he was a starter
Good point BW…his protest actually started as him sitting on the bench spur over losing his job and then somebody putting the spin on it he was protesting something. Prior to that he never gave one penny, one minute of his time or one quote about anything related to what became his supposed cause.
And everyone agreeing with him taking a settlement is basically an admission that he knew he had a weak case and was taking whatever money they threw at him…
Yeah, and he really stood up for his cause didn’t he? It was so damn important for him to “bring light to the injustice” but then he takes the money and forgets all about that. Way to stand up (excuse me, sit) for your cause
Stillers12,
You do realize by accepting the plea that Reid and Kapaernick show the world that they really don’t care about anything but money. Reid sure talked a whole lot of crap about how the “NFL would be exposed” and “I can’t wait until everyone knows what I know”. Well you know what, we can’t know because YOU TOOK THE MONEY
If he wants $20M/season and hasn’t played since 2016, that is why he is without a contract.
BINGO!!!!!!
Controversy creates cash.
My god I hate this guy
If Kap and Reid really cared about these “social injustices”, they would take some of that MASSIVE settlement and do a few public service commercials and sponsor peace rallies. But I guess its easier to keep your money and forget about all of that