Colin Kaepernick Invited to Play with UFL by Senior VP Ahead of 2025 NFL Season

Former NFL quarterback and current civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick could have the chance to restart his football dreams elsewhere.

While speaking to TMZ ahead of the start of the 2025 NFL season, UFL senior vice president of player personnel Doug Whaley invited Kaepernick to join the spring football league and suggested it would help him put together some game tape that could make it easier for an eventual return to the NFL.

"He hasn't reached out to us, so it was one of those things where we've seen that, and he knows we're here, so if he really wants it, we would listen," Whaley said. "It'd cost us nothing to listen. There are avenues for him, not only with us, but CFL. There are other avenues that if he wanted to put recent game tape out there, he could have a chance to do it."

Kaepernick hasn't played in the NFL since the 2016 season after his demonstration during the national anthem to protest against racial injustice, police brutality and oppression in the United States. He eventually filed a grievance against the league alleging collusion and ultimately reached a confidential settlement.

Despite being out of the NFL for almost a decade, Kaepernick said last year that he's "still training" and "still pushing" to make it back to the league. The 37-year-old played for the San Francisco 49ers from 2011 to 2016 and helped guide the team to an appearance in Super Bowl XLVII in 2012.

The UFL was formed after a merger between the XFL and USFL, and it completed its second season this past June. The 2026 campaign will begin in March, giving Kaepernick a lot of time to think things over before deciding whether or not to take Whaley up on his offer.