XFL rosters have been announced ahead of the league’s imminent kickoff.
Among the hundreds of players to have made the cut on one of the eight teams in the new-look league are a few familiar faces.
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Former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant, 31, has made the Vegas Vipers’ initial 53-man roster.
He’ll be hoping to form a productive connection with quarterbacks Brett Hundley, Jalen McClendon, and Luis Perez – all of whom have spent time in the NFL.
Bryant’s move to the XFL appears to have taken some fans by surprise, such as one who suggested: “Martavis should be in the NFL”
While another commented: “LET MARTAVIS COOK”
Bryant was drafted in the fourth round of the 2014 draft by the Steelers, going on to make 21 appearances in his first two seasons.
However, he missed the entire 2016 season as he was found to have violated the NFL‘s substance-abuse policy.
Bryant returned in 2017 to make fifteen appearances for Pittsburgh, before being traded to the Oakland Raiders for a third-round pick in April 2018.
An injury limited him to just eight games the following season before he was suspended again for “violating the terms of his conditional reinstatement from a previous ban,” per the NFL.
Stints in the Canadian Football League and the Fan Controlled Football League followed before he made his way to the XFL.
The spring-based league was resurrected by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Dany Garcia, and Red Bird Capital after they purchased the defunct league from WWE boss Vince McMahon in 2020.
Not that Bryant is the only former NFL receiver to have made the league with former First-Team All-Pro Josh Gordon, 31, named to the Seattle Sea Dragons’ roster.
Other ex-NFL stars looking for a new start in the XFL are former First-Team All-Pro linebacker Vic Beasley (Vipers), former Second-Team All-Pro punter Marquette King (Arlington Renegades), and 2016 first-round draft pick, quarterback Paxton Lynch (Orlando Guardians).
The first of the XFL’s 43 2023 games kicks off on Saturday, February 18, with the Renegades hosting the Vipers, before the Houston Roughnecks host the Guardians later that evening.
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