Well we wont have to wait more than a week to get football back in our lives. So pull up your pants, kick up your feet, crack a beer, because Young Horn is about to give the rundown of the new Football League, run by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
Backstory:
Initially founded in 2001, the XFL was a joint collaboration between NBC and WWF, spearheaded by Vince McMahon. After a hot start, poor ratings ultimately led to the league lasting just one season. The league returned in 2020, with McMahon leading the reboot, but had to close its doors again after COVID-19 shut things down after just five weeks. The league filed for bankruptcy and was forced to sell. This is where The Rock and his group then bought the league out of bankruptcy for $15 million, eyeing 2023 as its return season. For cost-saving measures, each XFL team will train in Arlington, Texas, and will only travel for game days.
Teams:
The league is split into two divisions consisting of 8 teams, with their associated Head Coaches.
XFL North
D.C. Defenders -- Reggie Barlow
Seattle Sea Dragons -- Jim Haslett
St. Louis Battlehawks -- Anthony Becht
Vegas Vipers -- Rod Woodson
XFL South
Arlington Renegades -- Bob Stoops
Houston Roughnecks -- Wade Phillips
Orlando Guardians -- Terrell Buckley
San Antonio Brahmas -- Hines Ward
As a new XFL fan, who learned everything about this league in about 45 minutes, I will be declaring myself a Seattle Sea Dragons fan. So I learned some of the changes between the 2020 XFL lineup and the 2023 version, there is only one team, the "San Antonio Brahmas" with both a new host city and new team name. Three teams have the same nickname but a new host city: The Vegas (formerly Tampa) Vipers; the Arlington (formerly Dallas) Renegades, and the Orlando (formerly New York) Guardians. The L.A. Wildcats got the boot. I feel like the Dallas Cowboys paid the Renegades to not use Dallas as their host city name, even though the Cowboys play in Arlington.
Notable players
This is where it gets good, finding out which former NFL players are throwing their hat in the ring that is the XFL. Some notable stars include former All-Pro wideout Josh Gordon (Sea Dragons), I guess they aren't testing for weeeeeeduh, former Steelers receiver Martavis Bryant (Vipers) and Vipers quarterback Luis Perez, a longtime NFL journeyman who started for the USFL's New Jersey Generals last year before briefly spending time with the Rams.
Former NFL quarterbacks Ben DiNucci (Seattle), A.J. McCarron (St. Louis), both of whom have started games in the NFL, and former NFL and USFL alums Kyle Sloter (Arlington) and Jordan Ta'amu (DC) will also take part in the XFL's upcoming season.
Side note, Ben DiNucci's brand of hats and T-shirts are fire "@TrueBrvnd" "https://truebrvnd.com/" Not an ad, but could potentially be one?
Three former NFL first-round picks, starting with QB Paxton Lynch (Guardians...also looks like a shitty magician), LB Vic Beasley (Vipers) and safety Matt Elam (Guardians) are also in the league. Lynch was the 26th overall pick in the 2016 draft by the Broncos.
Beasley, the seventh overall pick of the 2015 draft by the Falcons, was an All-Pro in 2015 with 15.5 sacks. It was shocking to see Vic Beasley on this list, and then I forgot about his fall from a potential NFL defensive player of the year, Elam was the last pick of the first round of the draft in 2013 by the Ravens. Running back Matt Jones (Vipers) was a third-round NFL pick in 2015 by Washington. Two punters, Marquette King (Renegades) and Brad Wing (Brahmas) both just ooze swag and are actually perfect for the XFL.
People forget Brad Wing was on the LSU team with Odell and Jarvis Landry.
Best thing about this league, is another thing to gamble on! I am only seeing lines listed on @DraftKings. I need to do a little more of a deeper dive into these rosters because I give my expert analysis for my picks this weekend.