Colin Kaepernick’s Next Shot Might Be UFL: Exec Says Phone Is Open As NFL Doors Stay Shut

Sage Matthews here, and a United Football League decision maker just said out loud what the NFL keeps saying with silence: if Colin Kaepernick wants snaps, the UFL will pick up the phone. Another day, another reason to reconsider how the football machine grinds people down, then offers them a side door with a polite smile and a waiver form.

UFL senior vice president of player personnel Doug Whaley told TMZ Sports that Kaepernick has not reached out, but if he did, they would listen. His exact vibe was pragmatic to the point of clinical. It costs nothing to hear him out, Whaley said, and there are paths for him to put new game tape out there. Translation for the insomniacs among us who have seen this movie: the NFL will not say yes, so the UFL and perhaps the CFL become the proof-of-life options.

This is landing right before the 2025 to 2026 NFL season begins, which also marks almost nine years since Kaepernick last took a regular season snap. Yes, nine. The quarterback who once dragged the San Francisco 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans now exists in a purgatory where the only suitors are developmental leagues and hypotheticals. The receipts are still there. As logged by NFL.com, he set the single game rushing mark for a quarterback with 181 yards, and he totaled 85 touchdowns as a starter, including 13 on the ground. None of that erased the standoff that followed his 2016 season, the anthem protests that became a national proxy war, or the collusion grievance that ended in a confidential settlement, a saga documented across ESPN and the Associated Press.

Whaley’s pitch is both simple and bleak. There are avenues. There is the UFL. There is the CFL. There are rosters that need arms and systems that churn through players who can still throw a post route on schedule. If Kaepernick wants back in, put fresh tape on file and let the market decide. It reads like an open invitation and a quiet dare. Because those who still insist the NFL would line up for him after all these years are probably not watching the same league that shrugs at chaos and squints at controversy until it fades from the screen.

Does this mean the UFL is eager to headline him? Not exactly. Whaley’s careful wording matters. He said the league has seen the chatter, and that Kaepernick knows the UFL is there. If he really wants it, they would listen. That is not a guarantee, a contract, or even a tryout. It is a call me maybe from a league that prides itself on being the on-ramp for talent trying to claw back to the big show. To be fair, the UFL has done just that. Several coaches and players have used it to reboot careers that stalled in the NFL. If you are looking for a meritocracy, this might be as close as the sport allows.

The context no one can escape is the calendar. Kaepernick opted out of his 49ers deal before the 2017 season and has not been signed in the pros since. Every year that passes adds more weight to the question of readiness and rust. Even the most sympathetic front offices prefer certainty over symbolism. If he wants to force that conversation back to football, Whaley’s suggestion is the path of least resistance. Lace up, take hits, complete passes, and turn new tape into a data point a general manager can sell to an owner who flinches at headlines.

Set aside the culture wars for a second and consider the marketing. A Kaepernick stint in the UFL would be the most watched spring football experiment since, well, the last time the NFL let an outsider narrative take over their news cycle. It would draw cameras, advertisers, and skeptics. It would also draw defensive coordinators who have spent years figuring out how to erase dual threat quarterbacks. That is the reality he would face, not a nostalgia tour.

For those asking if this is real or just another polite brush off, it helps to read the room. TMZ Sports has the on-record comments. NFL.com backs the historical numbers. ESPN and AP have chronicled the legal history that shadowed his exit. The facts are stable. The question is will he take the UFL’s invitation to audition for an NFL that pretends it has moved on. If you thought there was a cleaner path, I have a sideline tablet to sell you.

So here we are. A veteran quarterback with a Super Bowl appearance on his resume is being nudged toward a league built as a second chance machine. If he calls, they will listen. If he plays, we will watch. If he wins, the NFL will suddenly remember how much it loves competition. And if he struggles, the league will nod and say it tried, even if it never really did. Anyway, go ahead and mark your calendars. Either the phone rings or it does not. Either way, the discourse is warming up again, which is exactly what the sport thrives on.

At this point, should we even pretend to be surprised?

Sources: Celebrity Storm and TMZ Sports, NFL.com, ESPN, Associated Press
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