Battlehawks Take Flight

Six years after the St. Louis Rams packed their bags and left for Los Angeles, the city has found a new football team to root for in the St. Louis Battlehawks, a member of the revamped XFL during the spring and summer of 2023.

While the XFL isn’t as nearly as popular as the NFL is in America, the city of St. Louis has welcomed the team with open arms, and with that setting attendance records for any alternate football leagues in history. The season started the week after the Super Bowl on Feb. 19, giving football fans no pause to the action. Battlehawks tight end Jake Sutherland’s first game in St. Louis wasn’t like anything he’d ever experienced as a player in his entire career playing football.

“[The environment] was incredible,” Sutherland said. “The way The Dome is set up, it was so loud, even when we are just changing from defense to offense and our offensive coordinator is trying to get a play in and all you can hear is static… it was like being at a concert but the concert is directly on top of you.”

The Battlehawks’ history, for as short as it seems, is actually rather long. On Aug. 21, 2019, the Battlehawks were announced as one of the eight teams in the revamped XFL owned by WWE executive chairman Vince McMahon. The Battlehawks started the season with two games on the road, before playing their opening game in The Dome at America’s Center on Feb. 23, 2020, which had an attendance of 29,554 fans according to Spectrum News 1. Sutherland was a member of the opposing New York Guardians at the time and the raucous crowd back then was in the back of his mind when it was announced that he would be playing for the Battlehawks in 2023;

“It wasn’t very fun,” Sutherland said. “But being able to see what it was like firsthand [in 2020] and now playing for the Battlehawks in the stadium, that was a huge factor [of why I was excited to play in St. Louis].”

A week later, 27,527 fans saw their second home game of the season, but that would be their last as the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the remainder of the season. Months later, McMahon would file the XFL under bankruptcy, which cast doubt if the Battlehawks would ever return. Very quickly, however, the league was purchased by a group led by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in August of 2020, and later the Battlehawks were again announced as one of the teams participating in the XFL’s 2023 season.

As of April 124, the Battlehawks hold a record of 6-2, and should they hold on to a top-two spot in their division, they would qualify for the playoffs with a chance to win the XFL championship, something Sutherland hopes the team can accomplish for the city.

“The primary goal for us is to continue to strive to push into the playoffs and then come home with the championship trophy,” Sutherland said. “[We’ll do] whatever it takes to get there.”

With two home games remaining before the playoffs, Sutherland said he hopes that the support from the city continues and that more fans will be able to watch their games in person than ever before, even as the city breaks attendance records at nearly every home game.

“With all the love that the St. Louis community has given us this year, I’m sure we’ll be able to break the record [again] by the end of the season.”