When the Battlehawks play their 2023 season opener in February, St. Louis will experience the return of XFL excitement. In 2020, the XFL brought professional football back to St. Louis. The league’s first season was met with great fanfare and boisterous attendance, but the COVID-19 pandemic destroyed the league’s success. The pandemic forced the cancellation of the season in March, and in April the XFL filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after suspending operations.
Since then, the XFL has been acquired by a new ownership group led by RedBird Capital Partners, which is made up of Dany Garcia, Dwayne Johnson, and Gerry Cardinale. The group has stated that it intends to resurrect the league in 2022.
Now, the seven remaining XFL teams—the Arlington Renegades, D.C. Defenders, Houston Roughnecks, Orlando Magic, and St. Louis football team—are back.
Only hours after playing for the Seattle Sea Dragons in the XFL and four years after the untimely death of his partner, the mother of his daughter, former NFL defensive end Chris Smith passed away at the age of 31.
He participated in Sunday’s XFL victory over the St. Louis Battlehawks for Seattle, and the cause of his passing has not yet been disclosed.
2019 saw the death of Smith’s girlfriend Petara Cordero on a Cleveland highway after his Lamborghini encountered a flat tire and collided with a median.
When another car crashed into the side of Cordero’s, she was later found to have consumed alcohol. Cordero had already exited the car and was standing by the side of the road.
The 2014 NFL Draft selection interacted with
