Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has been out of the league for about seven years, still wants to hit the NFL playing field. After the announcement of the merger between the XFL and the USFL, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the owner of the Extreme Football League, responded to a fan who wrote that giving Kaepernick a job in the league would give the player a chance to prove to the NFL and the world that he can still play at a high level.
The user, Steven_Carillo0311, wrote, “This is where Kap should play if he wants to prove he still can.”
In response, The Rock wrote, “We met with Kaep and his agents (whom I like a lot) earlier this year. Good meeting; looked to create an opportunity for him, but I don’t think it’ll happen. We’ll see.”
Update: Dwayne Johnson has met with Colin Kaepernick and has invited him to join the XFL.
The Rock, who owns the XFL, said he met with both Kaepernick and his agents and had a “Good meeting, looked to create opportunity for him.’ but Johnson says he doesn’t think it will happen.… https://t.co/JesNbo0IGw pic.twitter.com/tKovETMsdg
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 4, 2023
This isn’t the first time Kaepernick allegedly had contact with the XFL about playing in the league.
In an interview with NPR in 2020, XFL commissioner Oliver Luck was asked about the possibility of the former NFL player competing in the league.
He responded by saying, “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.”
He reiterated that his reps were looking for too much money and had to pass on the opportunity.
“I’m saying that we spoke with his representative, and the salary requirements that were broached in that conversation were exorbitant and certainly out of our range.”
The Rock has left the door open for Kaepernick to join the league; let’s see if he takes advantage of it.