We now know the teams that will compete in the rebooted XFL, which will kick off its 10-week season on Feb. 8, just a week after Super Bowl LIV.
Here are the eight teams, announced Wednesday afternoon by XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck, ESPN's Laura Rutledge, and FS1 host Colin Cowherd:
_ Dallas Renegades
_ Houston Roughnecks
_ Los Angeles Wildcats
_ New York Guardians
_ St. Louis BattleHawks
_ Seattle Dragons
_ Tampa Bay Vipers
_ Washington Defenders
So why were Rutledge and Cowherd on hand to announce the new team names? Probably because the XFL has multi-year deals in place with both ESPN and FOX Sports to televise next season's games, which will air on FOX and ABC every weekend. ESPN, ESPN2 and FS1 will also air games throughout the season, and the league's championship is scheduled to broadcast on ESPN on April 26.
So far, just one player has signed a contract to play in the XFL: former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback and former University of Oklahoma standout Landry Jones. The league is expected to announce more signings as NFL teams begin to cut their offseason rosters to 53 players.
