The XFL is a planned professional U.S. football league with the mission of reimagining America’s favorite sport. The league originally debuted in 2001 and only lasted one season. XFL games are set to begin again in February 2020.
The St. Louis BattleHawks were one of the league’s eight teams announced this week.
To learn more about the XFL resurgence, St. Louis on the Air host Sarah Fenske sat down with the team president of the BattleHawks, Kurt Hunzeker.
Listen to their conversation:
So much of sports fandom is built on long-standing tradition. There is a whole culture of being a fan of a sports team. The XFL doesn’t have that in place yet, but Hunzeker isn't worried.
![Kurt Hunzeker is the team president of the St. Louis BattleHawks.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/938d2e9/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2452x2452+0+0/resize/880x880!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fkwmu%2Ffiles%2F201908%2F082319_ew_kurthunzeker.jpg)
“When you don’t have a playbook ... that’s when it gets really fun,” he said. “We are building all these traditions together.”
Hunzeker said the XFL is in an idea-gathering phase, asking for input from football fans on social media.
“We want to work with the community and build those traditions of, ‘What's the music the players come through [to] before the start of the game?’” Hunzeker said. “‘Can fans go out on the field before the game starts?’ … Everything is a possibility right now.”
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by Sarah Fenske and produced by Alex Heuer, Emily Woodbury, Evie Hemphill, Lara Hamdan and Alexis Moore. The engineer is Aaron Doerr, and production assistance is provided by Charlie McDonald.
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