The 2023 XFL season is the league's second season, the first planned under its new ownership group of

Dwayne Johnson Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor and former professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he was integral to the developm ...

Dany Garcia Dany Garcia (born November 29, 1968) is an American businesswoman, film producer, and IFBB professional bodybuilder. Garcia is the founder of GSTQ, and the CEO and chair of The Garcia Companies and TGC Management, overseeing a portfolio of bra ...

, and Gerry Cardinale (RedBird Capital), and the third in the history of the XFL brand created and originally owned by

Vince McMahon Vincent Kennedy McMahon (; born August 24, 1945) is an American media proprietor and retired professional wrestling promoter, executive, and performer. From 1982 to 2022, he served as the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of WWE, the w ...

. The season is expected to start on February 18, 2023.

Background

The 2020 XFL season was cut short following five weeks of play in March 2020, as a result of immediate and prolonged

stay-at-home order A stay-at-home order, safer-at-home order, movement control order (more common in Southeast Asia), or lockdown restrictions (in the United Kingdom) – also referred to by loose use of the terms (self-) quarantine, (self-) isolation, or lockdow ...

s and prohibitions on large gatherings imposed in an effort to stop the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the Uni ...

. On April 13, 2020, XFL parent company Alpha Entertainment declared bankruptcy in response to the measures, most of which would not be fully lifted until vaccines were made available and widespread in early 2021. The assets of the league were sold to Johnson, Garcia, and Cardinale on August 3, 2020. During the course of the 2021 offseason, the XFL's new ownership group began discussions with the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

regarding a potential partnership; these discussions collapsed in July, leading the league to cancel its planned 2022 season. McMahon fired commissioner

Oliver Luck Oliver Francis Luck (born April 5, 1960) is an American business executive and former football quarterback. He is currently the executive director of the ASUN–WAC Football Conference (tentative name), a new NCAA Division I FCS conference starti ...

shortly before the bankruptcy; the league was left in the stewardship of Jeffrey Pollack during the transition to new ownership until Pollack resigned and was succeeded by former

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

president

Russ Brandon Russ Brandon (born June 1967) is an American sports executive, and current President of the XFL. Brandon is best known for his 21-year tenure in the front office of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League. Career Early career Brando ...

in November 2021. The regular season is scheduled to start on February 18, 2023. A player combine was held on June 18, 2022, the 2023 XFL Draft was held from November 15 to 17, and training camps are set to begin on January 8, 2023.

Teams

On March 11, 2022, multiple news reports indicated that the XFL had hired

Reggie Barlow Reggie Devon Barlow (born January 22, 1972) is a former American football player and coach who is currently the head coach and general manager for the DC Defenders of the XFL. Barlow served as the head football coach at Alabama State University f ...

away from the

Virginia State Trojans The Virginia State Trojans (also VSU Trojans) are the athletic teams that represent Virginia State University, located in Petersburg, Virginia, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Trojans compete as members of the Central Intercollegi ...

to serve as a head coach. The reports indicated Barlow would coach a team in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

; San Antonio was not among the eight cities that hosted an XFL team in 2020 but had begun discussions with the XFL during the 2020 season and had hosted the

San Antonio Commanders The San Antonio Commanders were a professional American football franchise based in San Antonio, Texas, and one of the eight members of the Alliance of American Football (AAF). The league began play in February 2019. The team played their home g ...

, the top-attended team in the

Alliance of American Football The Alliance of American Football (AAF) was a professional American football minor league. The AAF consisted of eight centrally owned and operated teams in the southern and western United States, seven of which were located in metropolitan are ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. Virginia State confirmed Barlow had taken a job with the XFL, but no confirmation from any party had verified the San Antonio team's existence. On April 6, 2022, multiple news reports indicated that the XFL had hired their second head coach in former NFL Defensive Back

Terrell Buckley Douglas Terrell Buckley (born June 7, 1971) is a former American football cornerback and current Head Coach of the Orlando Guardians. He also played professional baseball for the Mobile Baysharks in the Texas-Louisiana League. College career Bu ...

. The reports indicated Buckley would coach a team in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

; Orlando was not among the eight cities that hosted an XFL team in 2020 but had begun discussions with the XFL about moving the

Tampa Bay Vipers The Vegas Vipers are a professional American football team based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The team is an owned-and-operated member of the XFL, owned by RedBird Capital, Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia's Alpha Acquico, LLC. The team began operation ...

there during the 2020 season and had hosted the

Orlando Apollos The Orlando Apollos were a professional American football franchise based in Orlando, Florida, and one of the eight members of the Alliance of American Football (AAF), which began play in February 2019. The team played its home games at Spectru ...

, the second top-attended team in the

and the

Orlando Rage The Orlando Rage was an American football team based in Orlando, Florida as part of the XFL, begun by Vince McMahon of the World Wrestling Federation and by NBC, a major television network in the United States. History The team's colors were sc ...

, one of the most successful teams in the original XFL in 2001. On April 6, 2022, A report came out that sources close to the league have mentioned that XFL would be keeping five teams in their original 2020 locations (

DC Defenders The DC Defenders are a professional American football team based in Washington, D.C. The team was founded by Vince McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment and is an owned-and-operated member of the new XFL owned by Dwayne Johnson’s Alpha Acquico. The ...

, St. Louis BattleHawks,

Dallas Renegades The Arlington Renegades are a professional American football team based in Arlington, Texas. The team was founded as the Dallas Renegades by Vince McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment and is an owned-and-operated member of the new XFL owned by Dwayn ...

Houston Roughnecks The Houston Roughnecks are a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The team is an owned-and-operated member of the new XFL founded by Vince McMahon's Alpha Entertainment and plays its home games at TDECU Stadium. History ...

and

Seattle Dragons The Seattle Sea Dragons (formerly known as the Seattle Dragons) are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington. The team is a franchise of the new XFL (2020), XFL and plays its home games at Lumen Field in Seattle. Origin ...

), following through with the Vipers proposed move to Orlando, and adding two new teams in San Antonio and

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. The teams in San Antonio and Las Vegas would replace the

New York Guardians The Orlando Guardians are a professional American football team based in Orlando, Florida. The team was founded by Vince McMahon's Alpha Entertainment and is an owned-and-operated member of the XFL. The Guardians played their home games at MetLi ...

and the

Los Angeles Wildcats Los Angeles Wildcats is a name shared by several American football teams from Los Angeles: *Los Angeles Wildcats (AFL) The Los Angeles Wildcats (also reported in various media as Pacific Coast Wildcats, Los Angeles Wilson Wildcats and Wilson's ...

, respectively. According to the same report, the league was looking to re-hire Renegades head coach

Bob Stoops Robert Anthony Stoops (born September 9, 1960) is an American football coach. He was the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1999 through the 2016 season, and on an interim basis during the 2021 Alamo Bowl. He led the Oklahoma ...

and potentially bring back former Vipers head coach

Marc Trestman Marc Marlyn Trestman (born January 15, 1956) is an American football and Canadian football coach. He led the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) to back-to-back Grey Cup victories in 2009 and 2010, and another as head coach ...

in another capacity, while noting that in regard to coaches, "the situation (was) fluid" at the time and that several other former NFL players were being considered for coaching positions. Team identities were scheduled to be released October 31; teaser segments released the day before showed that the Dragons' and BattleHawks' new logos were exact matches to their old logos, and that color schemes matched the Renegades', Guardians', Roughnecks' and Defenders' brandings from 2020, with slight design alterations.

Coaching changes

Of the eight head coaches in the XFL in 2020, only one

Arlington Renegades The Arlington Renegades are a professional American football team based in Arlington, Texas. The team was founded as the Dallas Renegades by Vince McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment and is an owned-and-operated member of the new XFL (2020), XFL owne ...

coach

will return in the same position in 2023.

Broadcasting

In May 2022, the XFL announced it had signed an exclusive agreement with

ESPN Inc. ESPN Inc. is an American multinational sports media conglomerate majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Hearst Communications as an equity stakeholder. For management and financial reporting purposes, the company is the main entity wit ...

and

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

to carry every XFL game across the ESPN network, including

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

, and FX. The deal runs through 2027.

References

2023 XFL season XFL (2020)