Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio Thinks Paying Kaepernick $20 Million Makes Sense

According to the Associated Press, Colin Kaepernick wanted $20 million to play in the new Alliance of American Football, which started play a few weeks ago. However, the fledgling league took a pass.

Another new league, the XFL, also reached out to Kaepernick according to the Sporting News. Though nothing came of that either.

However, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio thinks the AAF or XFL should give Kaepernick what he wants financially because it would be good for business.

“Kaepernick would put asses in seats and eyeballs on screens,” wrote Florio. “That’s a tangible dollars-and-cents benefit to whichever league lands him, which at a minimum justifies a careful economic analysis as to whether paying Kaepernick $20 million would directly and/or indirectly generate more than $20 million in revenue. From ticket sales to increased ratings to jersey sales (Nike recently sold out its first run of no-team Kaepernick jerseys), Kaepernick’s presence would provide either league a significant boost.”

While Kaepernick potentially could help tickets sales and TV ratings in the new leagues, he might also turn off some fans who don’t like the anthem kneeling movement the former 49er began in 2016.

“A system that perpetually condones the killing of people, without consequences, doesn’t need to be devised, it needs to be dismantled,” Kaepernick tweeted about policing on June 16, 2017.

It’s also possible potential fans of the new leagues could be turned out by Kaepernick wearing socks to a 2016  San Francisco 49ers practice depicting police officers as pigs.

Florio thinks the Alliance of American Football has been hurt by substandard QB play, and the same issue could plague the XFL. So he believes the new leagues could use a higher level of QB play, something he thinks Kaepernick could bring.

“These leagues need quarterbacks who can play at an acceptable level,” wrote Florio. “The AAF obviously doesn’t have enough, if it has any. The XFL currently has none at all.”

But some might argue Kaepernick wasn’t a very good QB his last couple of years with the 49ers in 2015-16, as one of the NFL’s lowest rated passers each of those seasons, struggling with accuracy and decision-making. Late in his last season, he was benched after throwing for four yards in the first three quarters in a loss to Chicago. When he came back the following week, he threw for four yards in the second half in a loss to the New York Jets.

“The No. 1 reason Colin Kaepernick is unsigned: He’s not considered a starting-caliber player by any NFL evaluator anymore. Work from there,” tweeted Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer in May of 2017.

Not only did Kaepernick struggle his last two years in the league on the field, but according to Breer, he didn’t put in the long hours expected of NFL quarterbacks. With the mental challenges of the job, NFL starting quarterbacks are expected to be the first players in to work, and the last to leave.

“As one Niners employee explained it, Kaepernick wouldn’t stay late at the facility during the season like many quarterbacks routinely do, saying he’d take work home,” wrote Breer. “And there were examples where coaches saw what looked like shoddy prep surfacing in inexplicable mental errors in games. Another staffer, asked if he thinks Kaepernick wants to keep playing, answered, ‘I do think he wants to play—to stay relevant.’”

But maybe he could help one of he new leagues get the publicity they so desperately need.

At least that’s what Florio believes.