The XFL is still seven weeks from launch, but don’t expect any of the players under contract with the league to change between now and then.
Commissioner Oliver Luck spoke at length with the Tampa Bay Times roughly two months from kickoff and defended the league’s policy on not releasing its players from their contracts if an NFL team is interested in-season.
The Detroit Lions inquired with the XFL about quarterback Josh Johnson in November, but Luck & the XFL said the LA Wildcats player would be held to his contract ahead of December mini-camp.
Luck said, “In the game of football today (…) your quarterback play is determinative. (…) we said, ‘No, we’re keeping him. He’s ours, he signed a contract. He’s committed to us.”
Luck said he also turned down releasing quarterback Landry Jones and Phillip Walker after Ben Roethlisberger’s season-ending injury.
The commissioner explained that in order for the XFL’s relaunch to succeed, stability is key, saying “Once a player signs a contract (…) then he’s under contract with us. We won’t release that player to the NFL until after our season. We need certainty. We can’t just have guys peeling off.”
Two quarterbacks that fans will *not* see in the XFL are polarizing former football stars Johnny Manziel and Colin Kaepernick.
Johnny Football was in the XFL’s draft pool, according to Luck, but scouts and coaches, “didn’t think he was going to help their team.”
Of Kaepernick, Luck said, “I think his salary demands are way out of our ballpark. He was never really a viable option.”