Excitement flowed through all XFL fans this week with the announcement of the team names and logos. Arlington fans rejoiced to hear that the Renegades are triumphantly returning to Choctaw Stadium for their rebirth.
The league made the official announcement via Twitter the morning of Halloween, announcing all eight of the teams, including the Arlington Renegades, who return for the first time since 2020. ESPN’s Laura Rutledge was part of the video made by the XFL announcing the team names and logos, with Dany Garcia and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson doing voiceover work for the team.
Shortly afterward, the team’s original Twitter page officially changed to the Arlington Renegades, with the new logo being on display.
Arlington hosted a town hall event Tuesday evening, including Renegades head coach Bob Stoops speaking to fans about the team and the upcoming season. The event occurred at Troy’s at Texas Live!, where coach Stoops spent time with fans celebrating the return to Arlington.
Initial Thoughts on Arlington Renegades Logo and Team Name
Let’s start with the obvious opinion most Renegades fans will have: thank you, XFL, for keeping the team name the same. It really wasn’t a major surprise that the Renegades remained the team’s name, as Garcia hinted to Arlington fans at the town hall in July that it was a strong possibility. It’s what Arlington fans identify with the most when it comes down to the XFL in their city. Any change to it might have caused a stir with fans, but rest assured that the league made the right choice there.
The color scheme remains the same as well, which is another positive. Most of the Dallas/Fort Worth area sports teams have some variation of blue outside of the Dallas Stars hockey team. It was important to keep the identity of the team as much intact as possible. It’ll be a wonderful sight to see in February when the team runs out in their blue and black uniforms.
Now tackling the logo and what to think about the direction of the design. It’s a simple logo, but its change is perfect. The old logo is also nice, but it was somewhat cheesy and something you might see if you create a football team and logo in a video game. The D with the R slash in the middle of the D makes it more professional looking. It might take time to adjust to the logo, but a thumbs up to the league for modifying it and making it more like something you would see in the NFL.
What’s Next for Coach Stoops and the Arlington Renegades?
All coach Bob Stoops and the coaching staff’s focus is now on the XFL Draft that is coming up on November 16th and 17th. Fans have been hearing about which quarterbacks were invited to Jordan Palmer’s QB camp and multiple players signing contracts to the XFL. What’s unknown is who will be joining each team. Those questions will be answered in a couple of weeks.
The strong assumption is this will be a much different-looking team from the one fans saw in 2020. Both the offensive and defensive schemes will change in multiple ways. The air raid offense we saw in 2020 will change to a more balanced attack with a mixture of run and pass. Arlington’s defense will feature more speed and athleticism to fit the scheme. These are the type of players to keep in mind when the draft comes around.
Once fans can see who will be playing on the Renegades’ roster, this will give them a better idea of what kind of team they will be. Now the anticipation of the season is growing more and more by the day. Especially with the XFL being based in Arlington, the state of Texas has become the center of the XFL world which should excite all Renegade fans.
