The DC Defenders are a professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team based in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

The team was founded 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 ...

’s Alpha Entertainment and is an owned-and-operated member of the new

XFL XFL may refer to: Sports * XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001 * XFL (2020), a professional American football league Vehicles * Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...

owned by

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 ...

’s Alpha Acquico. The Defenders play their home games at

Audi Field Audi Field is a soccer-specific stadium in Buzzard Point in Washington, D.C. It is the home stadium for both of Washington, DC’s professional soccer teams, D.C. United in Major League Soccer and Washington Spirit in the National Women’s ...

History

2020 season

Washington, D.C., joined

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, New York,

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater in ...

, and

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

as the XFL's inaugural cities. All teams had 40-man active rosters and play a 10-week season.

said "the game will feature simplified rules for a faster pace of the game that should complete in under three hours", and draws from former college and NFL players. On February 21, 2019, the team hired

Pep Hamilton Alfonza "Pep" Hamilton (born September 19, 1974) is an American football coach who is the offensive coordinator for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the quarterbacks coach for the Los Angeles Char ...

, who most recently was an assistant with the

Michigan Wolverines football The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins in college football history. The team is known for its ...

team, as their first head coach and general manager. Hamilton is an alumnus of

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

and was familiar to XFL 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 ...

through Hamilton's work with Luck's son, a former NFL Quarterback,

Andrew Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in List of countries where English is an official language, English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is freq ...

. Hamilton was later hired by the Los Angeles Chargers and the Houston Texans as quarterbacks coach, leaving the position vacant. On February 8, 2020, the Defenders won the first game in modern XFL history, defeating the

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 ...

by a score of 31–19. On February 15, 2020, the Defenders beat 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 ...

by a score of 27–0, which was the first shutout in modern XFL history. On July 24, 2022, the XFL announced that it would be relaunching in

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

after a shortened 2020 season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Washington, D.C., was included in the cities planned to return in 2023 and Reggie Barlow was confirmed to be the new head coach.

Market overview

The Baltimore–Washington area has a history of several teams in alternative professional football. The

USFL The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

had the

Washington Federals Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

(a mostly unsuccessful franchise) in its first two years. Then the

Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars The Philadelphia / Baltimore Stars were a professional American football team which played in the United States Football League (USFL) in the mid-1980s. Owned by real-estate magnate Myles Tanenbaum, they were the short-lived league's dominant t ...

moved from

Veterans Stadium Veterans Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, at the northeast corner of Broad Street and Pattison Avenue, part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. The seating capacities were 65,358 for footb ...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, to

Byrd Stadium SECU Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium on the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. It is the home of Maryland Terrapins football and men's lacrosse teams, which compete in the Big Ten Conference. The facility was ...

College Park, Maryland College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and is approximately four miles (6.4 km) from the northeast border of Washington, D.C. The population was 34,740 at the 2020 United States Census. It is best known a ...

, in 1985, winning the USFL's final championship. 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 ...

's Baltimore CFL Colts/Stallions were the only successful American team in the league during their two-year existence in the mid-1990s (and were the only American-based team to win the

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

, the CFL's championship). Indoor teams to have played in Washington include the

Washington Commandos The Washington Commandos were an arena football team based in Fairfax, Virginia. The Commandos were founded in 1987 and were an inaugural member of the Arena Football League (AFL), and were based in Landover, Maryland. After not playing during t ...

and the

Washington Valor The Washington Valor were a professional arena football team based in Washington, D.C. that played in the Arena Football League (AFL) from 2017 to 2019. The team's home arena was the Capital One Arena. The Valor were owned by Monumental Sports ...

(which folded two months before the Defenders' first game) of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

, and the

D.C. Armor The D.C. Armor was a professional Indoor American football, indoor football team that began play in the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA) in the 2009 season. The team was based in Washington, D.C., with home games at the under-renovation ...

American Indoor Football Association American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

, in addition to several teams based in Maryland. Defenders fans have taken up a tradition of assembling

beer snake A beer snake, or cup snake, is the stacking of numerous plastic beer cups to form a "snake." Beer snakes are most commonly found at sporting events that are played out over many hours, such as cricket. Some snakes have been reported in the media a ...

s out of empty beer containers. The snake constructed at the March 8 game ended up spanning several rows, including a contribution from former Commissioner

Players

Current roster

Staff

Former Notable Players

Tyree Jackson Tyree Jackson (born November 7, 1997) is an American football tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. He played college football as a quarterback at Buffalo. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Buffalo ...

* Cardale Jones *

Rahim Moore Rahim Shaheed Moore (born February 11, 1990) is an American football free safety for the Arlington Renegades of the XFL. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the second round of the 2011 NFL Draft. He played college football at UCLA. Early ...

Eli Rogers Eli Lamar Rogers (born December 23, 1992) is an American football wide receiver for the Orlando Guardians of the XFL. He played college football for the Louisville Cardinals. He was signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers as an undrafted free agent ...

Scooby Wright Philip Anthony "Scooby" Wright III (born August 28, 1994) is an American football linebacker for the Birmingham Stallions of the United States Football League (USFL). He played college football at Arizona. Early years Wright attended Cardinal ...

References

External links

* {{WashingtonDCSports American football teams established in 2018 2018 establishments in Washington, D.C. American football teams in Washington, D.C. XFL (2020) teams Sports in Washington, D.C.