That Colin Kaepernick won’t ever take one other NFL snap ought to shock nobody, not after a six-year absence, an eight-figure settlement over the league’s blatant collusion to maintain him off the sector and particularly not at his superior age of 35, when arguably all however the luckiest, elite QBs have begun their declines.

In case you weren’t bought on that earlier than Kaep’s unhappy, hopeless letter to Jets proprietor Woody Johnson – a former Tremendous Bowl starter diminished to panhandling for observe squad reps – then you definitely needed to be by Johnson’s non-reply, selecting so as to add nothing to his QB room behind the terrible Zack Wilson reasonably than give Kaep a glance. We didn’t want that episode as proof that Kaep is definitively carried out within the NFL, however the information this week that Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s XFL had reached out to him about enjoying there – and that Kaepernick in all probability gained’t do it – raises a extra attention-grabbing query: does he actually need to play soccer in any respect?

I’ll say up entrance that I’m not within the camp that believes his letter to Johnson and ill-fated exercises had been all only for present, a solution to maintain his identify from fading into oblivion now that the NFL has fully washed its arms of him. I consider he needs to play, however solely within the NFL, and is holding onto no matter shred of hope he can conjure that he’ll get one final shot, regardless of all opposite proof.

So why flip down the XFL? Possibly pleasure or unwillingness to danger damage in a minor-league operation and smash no matter fantastical probability he nonetheless believes he has within the huge time. Or cash (although it’s uncertain he’s hurting for money). Or simply plain stubbornness. Any of the above may very well be true and we’ll doubtless by no means know the true reply since Kaep not often does interviews and hasn’t publicly responded to Johnson’s revelation about their assembly. No matter his cause, it’ll most likely keep in his personal thoughts, or solely be shared along with his internal circle, individuals like J. Cole, who he allowed to leak the letter to Johnson through X.

With out getting inside his head, what we are able to say is that by passing on the XFL, Kaepernick would miss an amazing alternative, if to not show he can nonetheless play professional soccer, then to stay the NFL’s nostril in it for blackballing him and to take a logical step ahead in his evolution of athletics as activism. Decreased to its easiest type, Kaepernick’s battle with the NFL, over kneeling and whether or not he’d be allowed to play soccer once more, was all the time about race and energy, about how far white apex capitalists might go in utilizing their sources to cease a Black man from utilizing the identical physique that made them cash to additionally make an announcement in regards to the mistreatment of people that seem like him. Since he insisted on doing the latter, they’d reasonably finish his profession than have him on the sector doing the previous.

In that context, it issues that the XFL is owned by Johnson, a biracial former athlete, who, based on Forbes, already has a broadcast cope with ESPN and sponsorship pacts with huge manufacturers like Beneath Armour. The rationalizations from the NFL’s defenders over preserving Kaepernick off the sector have been quite a few, however virtually all of them could be refuted by Kaepernick enjoying a season within the XFL: It will alienate followers (it’s exhausting to think about viewership, if not attendance, for XFL video games not growing with Kaepernick as its face); it might alienate sponsors (see above re: Beneath Armor); he’s not adequate (if the Jets, Bears, Patriots or Raiders QB rooms aren’t sufficient proof that he might make a minimum of a observe squad, contemplate that former XFL quarterback PJ Walker is now backing up the injured Deshaun Watson in Cleveland).

Kaepernick might silence any doubt about his capability or radioactivity to followers or enterprise companions by suiting up. Or he might assist Johnson construct the XFL itself, maybe taking fairness within the league, producing digital content material about his season and changing into one thing a minimum of among the NFL’s oligarchs are detest to think about: a league proprietor in his personal proper.

We’d like to see it, if solely Kaepernick himself liked the concept simply as a lot.