The XFL launched their team identities on Wednesday after months of growing anticipation. The identities were set to be unveiled by the league back in June, but were delayed unexpectedly. This lead to growing discontent within the XFL fan base who wanted to be able to call their team something other than just “XFL (insert city here).”
When we did see the logos and names, my initial reaction wasn’t negative. I liked some of the logos, such as the New York Guardians. I don’t really know what a Roughneck is, but that’s okay. However, as I sat back and thought about it, these were disappointing as a whole. The XFL missed a huge opportunity with some of these names and their logos.
These logos seem more rushed than anything else. It’s like the league wasn’t really ready to release these identities, but thought they had to in order to appease the fan base. One of the things the XFL can be praised for is their patience. Instead of jumping head first into the fire like 2001 or like the AAF, they decided to take two years to establish this relaunch. They were patient when deciding on their head coaching/team executive hires. The league was also patient when deciding where each team would be located.
However, this logo unveil doesn’t seem like they followed that pattern. Even though this unveil is two months late, they still managed to make this seem rushed. Names like the St. Louis BattleHawks and Seattle Dragons seemed a bit thrown together. The New York Guardians and DC Defenders practically have the same name.
The logos are even worse. Some people have pointed out that the Dallas Renegades look like a re-branded version of the former Arena Football League team, the Dallas Desperados. The Dragons logo looks like a UAB ripoff, and the logo for the LA Wildcats is literally “LA”.
I believe the XFL was keen on unveiling these identities at their inaugural draft in October. However, the league felt pressure to release these team names and hurriedly put this together. If the XFL waited until the October draft, maybe we would have a different reaction. For now, however, I think this is the XFL’s first major disappointment since their relaunch was announced back in early 2018.
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