The AAF Wants You To Know About the Famous Quarterbacks Who Turned Them Down
By Kyle Koster
The Alliance of American Football had a successful first weekend. Keeping that buzz alive will be a challenge moving forward. Now, call me cynical, but we’ve seen a bit of a loose strategy materialize this week. Talk about the most famous quarterbacks in the world who could conceivably play in the AAF but have opted not to.
In an interview with PFT Live, Orlando Apollos coach Steve Spurrier spoke about the efforts to entice Tim Tebow back to the gridiron. Tebow, obviously, is focused on baseball and planning his upcoming nuptials. Still, Tim Tebow, very cool!
Another extremely popular and polarizing figure known to quarterback a football team every now and then is Colin Kaepernick. And wouldn’t you know it, league co-founder Bill Polian was more than willing to tell The Athletic about Charlie Ebersol’s efforts to suit up for the upstart.
The Associated Press followed up:
"A person with knowledge of the conversation tells The Associated Press that the new Alliance of American Football spoke with Colin Kaepernick during its development about joining the league. But Kaepernick wanted $20 million or more to consider playing with the league that had its debut last weekend. The person spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday because neither side has publicly acknowledged such talks."
Twenty million dollars is a lot, especially in a league where the players are getting paid $70,000 to $80,000 for the season. More than $20 million is even more.
There’s an argument to be made that both Kaepernick and Tebow are worth more than $20 million to a league desperate for a face. There’s also an argument that the figure is far less than what would be necessary. Tebow would be abandoning his football dreams. Kaepernick would be compromising his principles and hurting his collusion case against the NFL.
Neither of these options were ever realistic. Neither the AAF or XFL can afford to pay a reasonable and fair figure for these guys. And that’s if there was any desire to play football among them.
But, hey, check out the free advertising and interest for the AAF.
Savvy move, if intentional. Can’t wait to see what’s on tap for weeks four, five, and six.