$20 Million Reasons Why Kaepernick’s Not in New XFL

WWE King Vince McMahon's 'rival' to the NFL opened this weekend, with mostly decent reviews and reception.

Included in the 8 team league are the Seattle Dragons, who despite losing to the Washington D.C. Defenders, showed they've got a decent receiver in Austin Proehl, the son of former 16-year NFL vet Ricky Proehl--who was a very good receiver.

There's a scattering of familiar names, most notably opening weekend former Ohio State star Cardale Jones at QB.  But one name that more than a few sports reporters noticed (as well as others) who was missing was Colin Kaepernick.

The former Niners' QB who's been out of football for 3 years now, reportedly had discussions about playing in the league. Whether it was to 'restore' his standing in the football community, or show the NFL he could still play, we won't know.

According to XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck (himself a former NFL starter), there were discussions in 2019 about him joining the league, but his price tag was out near Pluto. He reportedly wanted in the area of $20 million to play in the league, likely a multi-year deal.

According to The Blaze.com Luck said:

"We gave it some thought,"  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."

By the way according to a variety of sources, the highest payday for 'star' players in the XFL is around $500,000. And, the XFL has a policy requiring players to stand for the National Anthem. There were also questions about whether he would be able to navigate that situation.

To read more about why he's not in the league, click on the button below.