XFL Commish Oliver Luck: Colin Kaepernick's Contract Request Was 'Exorbitant'

XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck said the league had talks with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick about potentially signing with it, but his salary request exceeded what the league was willing to offer. 

"We spoke with his representative, and the salary requirements that were broached in that conversation were exorbitant and certainly out of our range," Luck told NPR's Michel Martin.

Luck added, "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."

As for whether the XFL would consider Kaepernick if he lowered his salary requests, Luck said he didn't know.

"That was well over a year ago, so I don't know what kind of shape Colin is in," he said. "And we haven't followed that because obviously, again, we want the best players who are interested in playing in our league. That's pretty much a requisite for our job."

Kaepernick, 32, has a far greater professional pedigree than any of the current quarterbacks in the XFL. He led the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl in the 2012 season and for his career made 58 starts over six seasons, throwing for 12,271 yards, 72 touchdowns and 30 interceptions while completing 59.8 percent of his passes.

He also ran for 375 yards and 13 touchdowns and led the Niners to two consecutive playoff appearances. There's a strong argument to be made that Kaepernick is better than some of the current starting quarterbacks in the NFL, let alone the XFL. 

For that reason, it isn't shocking that Kaepernick might not be interested in playing in a league that is offering players a base salary of $55,000 a year and its starting quarterbacks $495,000 a year, as opposed to the millions he should be getting in the NFL. 

But since being the centerpiece of a controversy in the 2016 season, Kaepernick has remained unsigned by NFL teams. The former 49ers quarterback made national headlines when he chose to kneel during the playing of the national anthem before NFL games in protest of police brutality and racial inequality. He eventually sued the NFL for colluding to keep him out of the league, settling out of court. 

That may be another issue for Kaepernick and the XFL—Luck said the league's players are required to stand for the national anthem.

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