Kaepernick Rejects AAF, Settles with NFL

Back in the early days of Saturday Night Live, producer Lorne Michaels decided to join a certain clamor that was trending at the time.

Rock promoters were offering untold amounts of cash at the Beatles in an attempt to get them to reunite for one more concert.

Dude offered them $3000.

 

Turns out John Lennon and Paul McCartney were watching the show together in Lennon's Dakota apartment. They looked at each other and actually considered it.

Colin Kaepernick is clearly no Beatle, but the QB-in-limbo received the same sorta offer to join the Alliance of American Football.

These days, NFL slingers are banking around $20million per. The AAF offered him $250,000.

 

That's the going rate. The AAF's standard contract is a quarter-mil a season for three seasons.

The challenge for QBs is lasting that long.

 

Suffice to say, Kaepernick didn't find the proposal to his liking.

Neither did Tim Tebow, actually, continuing his role as the Heisman winner who's sticking with baseball.

Of course, both have healthy off-the-field revenue streams, so they well and truly have better things to do.

 

Thus, the thanks-no-thanks wasn't exactly a surprise.

But Kaepernick and Ed Reid settling their legal action against the NFL was.

Dudes contended the NFL was blackballing them for taking a knee during the national anthem. Their cause was racial injustice, but as usual these days, the message became muddled and ultimately hijacked to suit others' purposes.

 

Reid wound up being signed by the Carolina Panthers, but it seemed like The Shield was still paying an unusual amount of attention to him.

As if those bright lights in tailored suits didn't realize it only added grist to the collusion mill.

Most likely enough for them to realize they handed Kaepernick and Reid the secondary evidence they needed to confirm it. Why else would a notoriously stingy operation agree to shell out the large bills?

 

Which would be enough for Kaepernick to buy an AAF franchise, promote a rule that allows offensive linemen to carry weapons -- that league's 'way short of skilled OL -- and suit up. It'd be pro football as a hobby.

So now, Reid can get back to being a force with the Panthers and Kaepernick can continue as a philanthropist with lotsa extra dosh to dole out.

As to the Shield, who knows? Will it have learned anything from this?

 

So they probably still won't get around to paying the cheerleaders and anything commensurate.