As the focus turns to the Super Bowl in the NFL, all eyes will be on the players taking to the field and who will be this year’s MVP. Who will be the one who turns the game in their favor, will it be the headline stars, or will a new name emerge?
No matter who it is this year, unfortunately, it won’t be someone who’s been signed to the XFL. But thankfully over the course of history, we have seen a number of players involved in both the showpiece event and have also been former winners in the XFL.
Bobby Singh and Ron Carpenter are the two that immediately spring to mind, as they were named on the St Louis Ram’s roster in their Super Bowl XXXIV win over the Tennessee Titans back in early 2000. It came as no surprise when The Rams took the title 22 years ago, and many expect the same this year as they are overwhelming favorites in Coral’s betting odds to defeat the Bengals on February 13th. While Singh and Carpenter tasted that success with The Rams, this year’s event will leave some other former XFL players wondering what might have been as they’ve missed out on taking to the field at the SoFi Stadium.
Austin MacGinnis – LA Rams
MacGinnis was the kicker on the roster of the Dallas Renegades ahead of the start of the XFL season in 2020, before he signed for The Rams in April 2020. However, the now 26-year-old struggled to make the breakthrough into Sean McVay’s plans on a full-time basis. But he kept his head down and worked hard in The Ram’s practice squad, which brought up a promotion into the active roster in December 2020. MacGinnis signed a reserves contract to stay with The Rams in early 2021; however, he was let go from his contract just before the 2021/22 season kicked off.
Kahlil McKenzie – Bengals
Although McKenzie will be delighted he’s still a player in the NFL, he will undoubtedly wonder what it would be like to have been with the Bengals at Super Bowl LVI. McKenzie originally joined the DC Defenders in January 2020 before instantly being traded to the Los Angeles Wildcats. After leaving the Wildcats, he initially linked up with the Seattle Seahawks but was to sign a deal to join the Bengals practice squad in August 2020. McKenzie impressed enough to be included in the active team roster for a handful of regular-season games. However, he was released in August 2021, which led to a deal with the Baltimore Ravens, and he made his NFL debut in The Raven’s win over Detroit in week 3 of the current season. His performances have led to a new one-year contract with The Ravens for 2022 as reported by Heavy Sports.
While these two have missed out on featuring in the Super Bowl this year, there are still many players from the XFL who are still in the NFL. We’ve seen Taylor Heinicke continue to star for Washington, as well as P.J. Walker at the Panthers, and Hunter Niswander at the Cowboys playing their part. So while we won’t see an XFL player taking to the field on February 13th in Los Angeles, there’s still a chance that we’ll once again see some of the familiar faces in the Super Bowl in the not too distant future.
