XFL Commissioner: Kaepernick’s ‘Exorbitant’ Salary Demands Kept Him Out of the League

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick priced himself out of a job with the XFL, according to Commissioner Oliver Luck.

The eight-team league held its first slate of games over the weekend, but without Kaepernick, who last year indicated he wanted to return to the NFL.

The XFL operates under a different player management model than the NFL, centrally hiring all of the teams’ players prior to the first draft.

In an interview with NPR about the upstart league, Luck was asked about the quarterback who began the trend of national anthem protests.

“Great football player,” he said. “I — you know, I’m not going to talk about any particular player outside of the group of guys that we have because we think — again, we’ve got the best 500 or so players under contract who aren’t in the National Football League or in other professional leagues,” he said.

Kaepernick was considered, Luck said.

Grandfather allegedly ‘boiled alive’ after 136-degree shower scalds skin at California hotel

Driver who mowed down blue city officer, yelled, ‘F— these cops,’ sparks outrage over light sentence

Hegseth works out with US troops in Malaysia as War Department vows ‘we will be fit, not fat’

Trump’s fire fades on Russia as he pulls troops, avoids pressing Xi on oil

Senate Judiciary Chair Calls ‘Arctic Frost’ Scandal ‘Worse Than Watergate’ as Full Extent of Biden DOJ’s Scheme Comes Out

Loudoun County school district hit with new conspiracy claims in transgender locker room case

Top Maryland Democrat urged to ‘get out of the way’ of midcycle redistricting

Watch: Democratic Congresswoman’s Dishonesty Exposed When Interviewer Calls Her Out on ‘Poison Pill’ Claim

JD Vance Calmly Dismantles Immigrant Lecturing Him at Campus Event: ‘My Job as VP Is Not to Look Out for the Interest of the Whole World’

Surrogate Discovers ‘Sinister’ Truth About Surrogacy a Year After Giving Birth: ‘It Has to Stop’

Trump surgeon general nominee confirmation hearing postponed as she goes into labor

Vance to meet with Duffy, aviation leaders as shutdown ‘gravely’ impacts crucial industry

Louisiana GOP throws weight behind Turning Point USA chapter rejected by New Orleans university: ‘injustice’

Daughter of Kentucky sheriff accused of gunning down judge slams online ‘gossip’ about dad

Op-Ed: To Local Zambians, Voddie Baucham’s Legacy Lives On

“We gave it some thought,” he said. “We have some pretty significant salary restrictions, you know. We’re a startup 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.”

When asked again if it all boiled down to money, Luck was emphatic.

“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,” he said.

Kaepernick’s last NFL contract was a six-year, $126 million extension, according to CBS Sports — averaging $21 million per year.