2020 XFL Season

The **2020 XFL Season** was the first season of the incarnation of the XFL. The season would play ten weeks of regular games, then do two weeks of playoffs to decide the champion of the season. However, on March 12, 2020, the season was suspended and later cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns, and this left the intended 10-week season incomplete. A month later, the league declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Despite that, people have used video games such as *Madden NFL 20* and *All-Pro Football 2K8* to simulate the remaining XFL games that never took place but with the NFL rules being used instead.

## Regular Season Matchups

### Week 1

DC Defenders win against Seattle Dragons, 31-19

Houston Roughnecks win against Los Angeles Wildcats, 37-17

New York Guardians win against Tampa Bay Vipers, 23-3

St. Louis BattleHawks win at Dallas Renegades, 15-9

### Week 2

DC Defenders win against Guardians, 27-0

Seattle Dragons win vs Tampa Bay Vipers, (17-9)

Dallas Renegades win at Wildcats, 25-18

Houston Roughnecks win against St. Louis BattleHawks, 28-24

### Week 3

Houston Roughnecks win against Tampa Bay Vipers, 34-27

Renegades win at Seattle Dragons, 24-12

St. Louis BattleHawks win against New York Guardians, 29-9

Los Angeles Wildcats win against DC Defenders, 39-9

### Week 4

New York Guardians win against Los Angeles Wildcats, 17-14

St. Louis BattleHawks win against Seattle Dragons, 23-16

Houston Roughnecks win at Dallas Renegades, 27-20

Tampa Bay Vipers win against DC Defenders, 25-0

### Week 5

Houston Roughnecks win against Seattle Dragons, 32-23

New York Guardians win at Dallas Renegades, 30-12

DC Defenders win against St. Louis BattleHawks, 15-6

Los Angeles Wildcats win against Tampa Bay Vipers, 41-34 (last game of the revived XFL)

## Cancelled Games

### Week 6

Houston Roughnecks at New York Guardians

St. Louis BattleHawks at Tampa Bay Vipers

Dallas Renegades at DC Defenders

Los Angeles Wildcats at Seattle Dragons

### Week 7

Dallas Renegades at Tampa Bay Vipers

Los Angeles Wildcats at St. Louis BattleHawks

New York Guardians at Seattle Dragons

DC Defenders at Houston Roughnecks

### Week 8

Tampa Bay Vipers at DC Defenders

St. Louis BattleHawks at New York Guardians

Houston Roughnecks at Los Angeles Wildcats

Seattle Dragons at Dallas Renegades

### Week 9

Dallas Renegades at Houston Roughnecks

DC Defenders at New York Guardians

Tampa Bay Vipers at St. Louis BattleHawks

Seattle Dragons at Los Angeles Wildcats

### Week 10

Los Angeles Wildcats at Dallas Renegades

Houston Roughnecks at Seattle Dragons

DC Defenders at St. Louis BattleHawks

New York Guardians at Tampa Bay Vipers

### Divisional

EAST 2 at EAST 1

WEST 2 at WEST 1

## Cancellation

On March 11, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to escalate in major American cities, the state of Washington imposed social distancing measures prohibiting the gathering of 250 or more persons. The league initially stated that a Seattle Dragons game against Los Angeles would be held behind closed doors as scheduled. McMahon was planning on defying a similar guideline issued by New Jersey and going ahead with a game between the Houston Roughnecks and New York Guardians at MetLife Stadium with a full crowd, as New Jersey governor Phil Murphy had not made those guidelines mandatory at the time and the league was expecting a large attendance. The next day, after all of the other prominent team sports leagues announced suspensions or cancellations of their remaining regular season games and further social distancing measures were announced elsewhere, the XFL announced it too would cancel the remainder of their regular season. Three days later, the CDC adviced no public gatherings of 50+ people for eight weeks.

## Postseason

The playoffs were to feature four teams, two from each division. In contrast to the 2001 XFL (which used a crossover approach in which teams faced the opposite division), the 2020 XFL would feature two division games, with the top two teams in each division facing off against each other to determine who represents the division in the XFL Championship.

The league initially had hoped that the social distancing measures would expire later in the season to allow the championship to be held. Any hope of resuming the season ended on April 10 with the league terminating almost all of its remaining employees and suspending operations. Had the championship been played, it would've been played on April 26 at TDECU Stadium in Houston.