Here Are Former Patriots Set to Play in XFL's Inaugural Season
The 2020 XFL Season kicks off on Saturday, Feb. 8, where the newly revamped professional football league will debut the eight competitive teams that will face-off for the league's inaugural season.
Owned by Vince McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment, the XFL will replace the one season failure of the original XFL, which took off and crashed in one season in 2001. Featuring a ten-game season with a two-week postseason stretching through the late winter and early spring, XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck is looking to have a league with a more fast-paced, easier-to-follow play style than the NFL.
Ten former New England Patriots, both players and coaches, will be playing in the XFL on varying teams across the country. From the 10 players that have been set to join their respective teams, only three landed on the Patriots roster, and one played a full season in New England; otherwise, this is the time for the faces of the practice squad to shine.
- On the DC Defenders, RB Nick Brosette from the 2019 preseason will given a chance to showcase his abilities. He was the brunt of a heavy workload, brought in to alleviate pressure from players like Rex Burkhead, Sony Michel, and James White. LB Scooby Wright only joined the Patriots late during the 2019 preseason, was cut, and made a short appearance on the practice squad. Wright arrived from two seasons with the now-defunct AAF Arizona Hotshots.
- The Houston Roughnecks will have DE Kony Ealy joining their squad. Ealy is known for his performance in Super Bowl 50, but his career petered out shortly after. He was traded to the Patriots in the 2017 offseason, but was cut before the end of camp. Should he play well, redemption may be in the cards.
- Coaching for the LA Wildcats are defensive coordinator Pepper Johnson and defensive backs coach Otis Smith. Johnson is a former player under Bill Belichick with the New York Giants and Cleveland Browns prior to his coaching time in New England. From 2000 to 2013, Johnson took on various assistant roles on the defensive side of the ball for the Patriots. His last NFL game was in 2016, and he resurfaced in 2019 with the AAF’s Memphis Express. Smith has split time with New England; in 1996, and then from 2000 to 2002 during his extensive career as a cornerback. Smith was an NFL assistant with the 2008 Eagles and the 2010 Chiefs. Also headed to LA is LB Anthony Johnson; a preseason pass rush powerhouse in 2016 with the Patriots. Cut early in the season, he bounced around from the Jets to the Colts and did stints in the CFL and AAF.
- The St. Louis BattleHawks have LB Steve Beauharnais. As a seventh-round pick from Rutgers under Belichick, Beauharnais was a rookie special teams player in 2013 before he too made the rounds to other NFL teams before heading to the AAF.
- RB Kenneth Farrow was a 2018 preseason cut, making only two appearances on the practice squad with the Patriots. He’s off to the Seattle Dragons to potentially add some flair to his resumé.
- Rounding out the former New Englanders are OT Martez Ivey, and WR Ryan Davis, both set to play for the Tampa Bay Vipers. Ivey was a five-star recruit from high school, but was undrafted; he made an appearance with the Patriots at their 2019 training camp, but didn’t create much of a ripple before being cut at the end of preseason. Davis was a superstar at Auburn, playing alongside Patriots QB backup Jarrett Stidham. As an un-drafted free agent in 2019, he too went to training camp but was cut before the regular season began.
Headquartered in Stamford, CT, the XFL is partnered with ABC/ESPN and Fox Sports, where the games can be followed. McMahon is a minority stakeholder in DraftKings, and if legality allows, the XFL will run official fantasy football and betting operations, just like with the NFL. Will the XFL have staying power this season? Only time will tell.
