THIRD TIMES A CHARM

“XFL football is back, Orlando! (again)”

As the revived league prepares for it’s third-relaunch since 2001, Orlando is once again the center of attention. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s new 8-city football league kicks-off it’s inaugural season in 2023, featuring the Orlando Guardians franchise as the only team from the State of Florida.

WWE founder Vince McMahon’s dogged obsession with the creation of a viable competitor to the National Football League manifested into a beautiful monstrosity of equal parts sports entertainment gimmicks, and innovation. Unfortunately, the 2001 version could only maintain for a year, before folding. A promising 2020 re-run of the XFL idea, was killed by the pandemic.

$15 million dollars later, and the now-McMahon-less minor league has once-more risen from the dead. Now, all eyes are on February, as the new-look XFL’s ESPN debut approaches.

HERE COME THE GUARDIANS

This latest attempt at bringing professional football to Florida’s fourth largest city has plenty going for it.

It comes four years after the mythical 2019 run of the Alliance of American Football (AAF) league’s Orlando Apollos. Local sports fans recall fond memories of Florida Gators legend Coach Steve Spurrier leading Orlando to the best record in the Alliance, before financial trouble forced the league’s untimely demise. While a second-self proclaimed championship for a Central Florida football team was endearing, the XFL promises more staying power.

Head Coach Terrell Buckley arrives in the City Beautiful with 14-years of NFL experience, and a Super Bowl XXXVI Championship ring. As a 2019 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Coach Buckley’s trophy case also features a Jim Thorpe Award from his record-setting days at Florida State University. A NFL-caliber resume for the coach of the only XFL franchise in the talent rich state sounds like a recipe for success.

But we’ll have to wait and see.