2023 XFL season

The 2020 XFL season was cut short following five weeks of play in March 2020, as a result of immediate and prolonged stay-at-home orders and prohibitions on large gatherings imposed in an effort to stop the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[1] XFL parent company Alpha Entertainment declared bankruptcy in response to the measures—most of which would not be fully lifted until vaccines were made available and widespread in spring 2021—on April 13, 2020.[2] The assets of the league were sold to Johnson, Garcia, and Cardinale on August 3, 2020.[3][4]

During the course of the 2021 offseason, the XFL's new ownership group began discussions with the Canadian Football League regarding a potential partnership; these discussions collapsed in July, leading the league to cancel its planned 2022 season.[5]

On December 2, 2021, it was revealed on Dany Garcia's Instagram page that the 2023 XFL season would start on its traditional date of the Saturday after Super Bowl LVII (as it had in 2020 and 2001), February 18, 2023. A player combine is scheduled for June 18, 2022, and training camps would begin on January 8, 2023.[6]

McMahon fired Commissioner Oliver Luck shortly before the bankruptcy;[7] the league was left in the stewardship of Jeffrey Pollack during the transition to new ownership until Pollack resigned and was succeeded by former Buffalo Bills President Russ Brandon in November 2021.[8]

On March 11, 2022, multiple news reports indicated that the XFL had hired Reggie Barlow away from the Virginia State Trojans to serve as a head coach. The reports indicated Barlow would coach a team in San Antonio, Texas; San Antonio was not among the eight cities that hosted an XFL team in 2020[9] but had begun discussions with the XFL during the 2020 season[10] and had hosted the San Antonio Commanders, the top-attended team in the Alliance of American Football in 2019. Virginia State confirmed Barlow had taken a job with the XFL,[11] but no confirmation from any party has verified the San Antonio team's existence.

On April 6, 2022, multiple news reports indicated that the XFL had hired their second head coach in former NFL Defensive Back Terrell Buckley. The reports indicated Buckley would coach a team in Orlando, Florida; Orlando was not among the eight cities that hosted an XFL team in 2020[9] but had begun discussions with the XFL about moving the Tampa Bay Vipers there during the 2020 season[10] and had hosted the Orlando Apollos, the second top-attended team in the Alliance of American Football in 2019 and the Orlando Rage, one of the most successful teams in the original XFL in 2001.

On April 6, 2022, A report came out that sources close to the league have mentioned that XFL would be keeping five teams in their original 2020 locations (DC Defenders, St. Louis BattleHawks, Dallas Renegades, Houston Roughnecks and Seattle Dragons), following through with the Vipers proposed move to Orlando, and adding two new teams in San Antonio and Las Vegas.[12] The teams in San Antonio and Las Vegas would replace the New York Guardians and LA Wildcats.[13] According to the same report, the league was looking to re-hire Renegades coach Bob Stoops and potentially bring back former Vipers coach Marc Trestman in another capacity, while noting that in regard to coaches, "the situation (was) fluid" at the time and that several other former NFL players were being considered for coaching positions.[14] Seattle and St. Louis, the XFL's two highest-attended teams in 2020, were long expected to return.[15]

On April 13, 2022, the XFL confirmed the hirings of Stoops, Buckley and Barlow, along with the league's five other head coaches, without identifying which teams they would coach. The other coaches hired were Wade Phillips, Rod Woodson, Anthony Becht, Jim Haslett and Hines Ward.[16] Haslett, who was later identified as the Seattle head coach, reportedly brought on former Roughnecks head coach June Jones as offensive coordinator.[17]