In the not so distant past, football fans in the great city of Houston had a world champion team to follow. Then the pandemic came along and brought an end to the second iteration of the XFL spring league.

Now, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson leads an ownership team that has not only revived the XFL, but seems to have injected it with an entirely new level of excitement.

The good news: the Houston Roughnecks are back, baby!

Houston Roughnecks: Professional Football Returns to H-Town

In even better news, Houston sports icon Wade Phillips will coach the new Roughnecks.

This latest version of an existing team comes with an updated version of an existing logo as well:

For those who don’t recall, the ever-hated Not-The-Oilers filed trademark infringement claims on the XFL for the last version of the Roughnecks logo, claiming it was too much like the Houston Oilers logo. Ultimately, the BESFs were able to bully the XFL into dropping the logo and related designs.

But that was then, this is now.

XFLNewsroom.com

Yesterday, XFL co-owner Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson took the stage at Disney Upfront to drop major news. It was revealed that the league had signed an exclusive five-year deal with ABC and the Walt Disney Company to distribute their content worldwide.

Mark Berman of local FOX affiliate reports that the University of Houston and TDECU Stadium is set to host XFL games when it returns in 2023.

While the star of the original Houston Roughnecks, quarterback P.J. Walker, was named the starter for the Carolina Panther’s yesterday, the XFL’s new system will assign two quarterbacks to each franchise as part of their upcoming draft system.

XFL Draft November 16-17, 2022

And, the XFL draft is only about two weeks away.

Another interesting wrinkle for H-Town fans comes in the form of the other teams in the league. Not only will the XFL place a team in Dallas, err, Arlington, but there’s also a team slated to call San Antonio home.

The Dallas Renegades, also know as the Houston Roughnecks whipping boys, are reincarnated as the Arlington Renegades. Presumably to wash the stench of suck off...

Central Texas gets the San Antonio Brahmas, which might actually make the Washington Commanders sound like a cool name...

With the XFL headquartering in Arlington, it’s not surprising that Texas would have 3 teams for this next go ‘round.

However, only one of them can lay claim to the title of XFL World Champions.

For a full break down on all the new XFL teams, check out this piece over at ESPN.com.

If you’re one of the early adopter types, the Houston Roughnecks team shop is open for business as well. Take those dollars you’d normally spend on Houston Texans gear and support the retuning world champions instead.