Colin Kaepernick talked to the XFL but his salary demands were too much

XFL commissioner Oliver Luck was doing an interview with NPR on Sunday and mentioned that he did in fact talk with the representatives of Colin Kaepernick, but said that “significant salary restrictions” ultimately meant that the spring football league “couldn’t go down that road.”

“We gave it some thought,” Luck said. “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 later added.

This is very interesting, and also shows that Kaepernick was looking to get paid for his name. The XFL does not allow the players to kneel for the National Anthem.

“Players have numerous opportunities to express themselves with all the platforms that exist today,” Luck said of the rule. “So, you know, standing for the national anthem we believe is a part of their responsibility as players in our league. But we think it’s important to have that requirement for our players.”