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The 2019-20 NFL season comes to a close next weekend following Super Bowl LIV between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. That does not mean that football is going away entirely, however. Following a nearly two-decade hiatus, the XFL, which folded after its lone season in 2001, has been revived and will open its 2020 season on February 8.
Comprised of eight teams across the country, the XFL season will last only 79 days, spanning a 10-week regular season followed by a two-week postseason.
On Monday, the league finalized the 52-man rosters for all eight franchises and there were a variety of ex-NFL names to make the cut – including former Chiefs QB Aaron Murray.
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Murray, who lasted only three years in the NFL and did not see any game action, will now lead the Tampa Bay Vipers franchise after the team drafted him in the 2020 XFL Draft on October 15, 2019. He was originally drafted by the Chiefs in the fifth round (No. 163) of the 2014 NFL Draft out of the University of Georgia. After being cut by Kansas City in September 2016, Murray bounced around between the rosters of the Arizona Cardinals, Philadelphia Eagles, and Los Angeles Rams.
The 29-year-old most recently displayed his football talents last spring in the Alliance of American Football (AAF) league, which quickly disbanded during its inaugural season in a similar fashion to the original XFL. Murray quarterbacked the Atlanta Legends team to a 2-6 record and a total of 88 points scored in eight games.
A few other surprising names will join the former Georgia star as quarterbacks in the league, including Cardale Jones, Connor Cook, Landry Jones, Luis Perez, Matt McGloin, and Josh Johnson.
Here are some of the notable non-quarterbacks getting ready to make their XFL debut, per Sporting News:
Antonio Callaway, WR
Cameron Artis-Payne, RB
Sammie Coates, WR
Lance Dunbar, RB
Kony Ealy, DE
Matt Jones, RB
Christine Michael, RB
Rahim Moore, DB
Donnel Pumphrey, RB
Keenan Reynolds, WR
Eli Rogers, WR
Rashad Ross, WR
Will Sutton, DT
Andre Williams, RB
Scooby Wright, LB
Derron Smith, S
Charles James, CB
Will Hill, S
Terrance Williams, WR
Kenneth Farrow, RB
Marquette King, P
Nick Novak, K
Garrett Hartley, K
Vince McMahon Takes Ownership (Again)
Famed WWE executive Vince McMahon is once again the owner of the league and the brainchild behind its re-launch. In a January 2018 interview, the wrestling icon announced that the XFL would return in 2020, just with a little less flashiness.
“I wanted to do this since the day we stopped the other one,” McMahon told ESPN. “A chance to do it with no partners, strictly funded by me, which would allow me to look in the mirror and say, ‘You were the one who screwed this up,’ or ‘You made this thing a success.'”
McMahon has been adamant that the XFL is not intended to be a developmental pipeline to the NFL. In fact, the 74-year-old owner has plans to take the league in a different direction.
“The start of this league has nothing to do with the NFL’s troubles,” McMahon said. “What has happened there is their business, and I’m not going to knock those guys, but I am going to learn from their mistakes as anyone would if they were tasked with reimagining a new football league.”
XFL announces games, beginning on weekends in February, will be on ESPN, ESPN 2, Fox, FS1 and FS2. The AAF schedule was too confusing and too digitally focused. Vince McMahon understands the importance of giving fans & gamblers easily understood locations for games.
Time will tell if the league has what it takes to survive a dense sports scene in 2020 and beyond, but its unique format should be enough to at least attract the attention of NFL fans during the offseason.
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For more NFL updates, follow Chris Licata on Twitter: @Chris__Licata