Marty: Ranking the very odd XFL team names

For the second straight year, there will be a new professional football league starting up once the NFL season has concluded in February.

Last year it was the Alliance of American Football. This year it is the XFL, which is not exactly brand new. WWE founder, Vince McMahon, is back for round two after the original concept flopped.

On Wednesday, the XFL released names and logos for the eight teams in the league. Here are my rankings of the team names, and boy are they unique:

1.Dallas Renegades

This name could be reconsidered, but overall this is the best out of the group. It distances itself from the Cowboys while still staying true to the city. It still isn’t quite a homerun but is definitely the most quality name out of the bunch.

2.Tampa Bay Vipers

For me this the sleeper out of the group. Vipers might not be the most eye-popping out of the group, but overall they nailed the name. It’s tough to find an interesting enough name about the area so they found a creative name that will strike fear into its opponents.

  1. Houston Roughnecks

Not sure why, but the name Roughnecks just fits with the city of Houston. Despite this, it’s just too similar to that of the Renegades. The logo does bring in some Houston Oilers vibes, which pushed it into the top-3 for me.

  1. Seattle Dragons

Despite making no sense for the city of Seattle, the Dragons are one cool name. Personally, I can not wait for the team to run out of the Dragon on game days, and thy have one cool mascot.

  1. New York Guardians

Here is where the names take a turn for the worse. The name New York Guardians just does not sound great. They could have gone so many different ways with this name and it just seems very generic. Maybe McMahanon has been watching too much Guardians of the Galaxy?

  1. D.C. Defenders

I get where the XFL was attempting to go here, but this name is a total flop. Names are hard to make for D.C. but there had to better name. To be fair, the Wizards aren’t much better but both teams are now using the same color scheme so I guess that could be a bright spot.

  1. St. Louis Battlehawks

First question. What even is a Battlehawk? Also, who thought it would be a good idea to name a team the Hawks when the city’s biggest rival is the Chicago Blackhawks. It is cool that when you flip the logo it spells STL, but even that can’t save the name.

  1. L.A. Wildcats

Okay, this one is really bad. Seriously, can you get more uncreative for a team name? The city of Los Angeles should consider protesting XFL games until a rule change.