BEVERLY HILLS (CNS) - The Los Angeles XFL team will be nicknamed the Wildcats, the league announced today as it unveiled the nicknames for all eight teams.
Each team's nickname was announced in a video played during a presentation that was streamed on the websites of the league, ESPN and Fox Sports, which will both carry the league's games, along with ABC.
“In the land of bright lights, far from the flash and fame, they've already begun to prowl,” the Wildcats video began. “Enter their den and be dominated. Run away and be ripped apart. This is prime time meets primal instinct. This is showtime with a snarl. This is our time to roar. The L.A. Wildcats. Unleashed.”
The team's colors will be red and orange.
“Today our team got its badass name,” team President Heather Brooks Karatz said in a statement. “Now it is up to all of us to tell the story of the Los Angeles Wildcats -- our fans in the stands, our players on the field and our team's presence in the community. We are roaring our way to kickoff in February 2020.”
The nickname drew more criticism than support on social media. Some fans wanted the team to be nicknamed Xtreme, the nickname of the Los Angeles team in the original incarnation of the XFL in 2001 and the league's champion.
“I'm sorry, but we/LA got the lamest name in the league,” Steven Ramos of Downey tweeted. “Not to mention the logo and colors look boring. Bringing back the LA Xtreme name and colors would have been much better.”
There was no immediate response to a request for comment from Brooks Karatz.
As previously announced, the Wildcats will play at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson beginning in February.
The league's other teams are DC Defenders; Dallas Renegades; Houston Roughnecks; New York Guardians; St. Louis BattleHawks; Seattle Dragons; and Tampa Bay Vipers.
Coincidentally, one of Los Angeles' first professional teams was also nicknamed Wildcats, a member of the original incarnation of the American Football League in 1926 whose nickname came from its star player, George “Wildcat” Wilson, a halfback from the University of Washington who was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.
However, it did not play in the Los Angeles until after the original AFL's lone season when it defeated the independent Hollywood Generals, 26-7, at the since-demolished Wrigley Field in South Los Angeles as part of a series of post-season exhibition games.
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