XFL commissioner Oliver Luck confirmed that they did approach Kaepernick with an offer to play for one of their teams. However, they weren’t able to find a compromise on the paycheck.
“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.
“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.”