XFL
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50 free XFL trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Few leagues have died and come back as often as the XFL. Vince McMahon's 2001 original mixed pro football with wrestling showmanship and lasted a single season. The 2020 reboot dropped the gimmicks, won real fans in eight cities and was gone within weeks. A third version returned in 2023 under new owners before merging with a rival. This quiz covers all three eras: the teams and their nicknames, the quarterbacks and coaches who passed through, the rule experiments that later reached the NFL, and the television deals and business dramas behind the scenes. Expect questions on the 2020 teams from Seattle to Tampa Bay as well as the rowdy spirit of 2001. It is written for spring football fans, wrestling fans who remember the first attempt, and anyone who enjoys a good sports business story. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the history as you play.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which former WWE wrestler led the group that bought the bankrupt XFL hours before a planned auction in 2020?
Dwayne Johnson
Dwayne Johnson had wrestled as The Rock for Vince McMahon, the founder whose league he rescued, and had played college football for the Miami Hurricanes.
Q 02Which nickname did Las Vegas Outlaws running back Rod Smart wear on the 2001 XFL's best-selling jersey?
He Hate Me
He Hate Me made Rod Smart a national sensation, and his later Carolina Panthers teammate Jake Delhomme named a thoroughbred She Hate Me in tribute.
Q 03What did the letter X officially stand for in the name of the original XFL?
Nothing
Nothing was the official line: another league then being formed had already taken the name everyone assumed, so promoters stressed that the X was just a letter.
Q 04Which pre-game ritual did the 2001 XFL replace with two players sprinting to grab a loose football?
The coin toss
The coin toss gave way to the opening scramble, and the stunt caused the league's first injury when an Orlando safety separated his shoulder before his team's opener.
Q 05Which television network, having lost its NFL rights in 1998, co-owned the original XFL with the WWF?
NBC
NBC split the league 50–50 with the WWF and aired its weekly showcase games, then walked away after one season of collapsing ratings.
Q 06Which television show started 45 minutes late when a 2001 XFL game ran into double overtime?
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live had Jennifer Lopez hosting that night, and a furious Lorne Michaels got XFL telecasts cut off at 11 p.m. Eastern for the rest of the season.
Q 07Which play did the NFL redesign in 2024 using a line-up very similar to the revived XFL's?
The kickoff
The kickoff became the NFL's dynamic version, with coverage players and blockers lined up a few yards apart and held still until the ball comes down, much as the XFL had tried in 2020.
Q 08Which former wrestler served as the analyst on NBC's lead broadcast team for 2001 XFL games?
Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura was midway through his single term as governor of Minnesota, and critics in the press accused him of cashing in on his fame with the television job.
Q 09Which NFL team's 2016 move left St. Louis as the only 2020 XFL market without an NFL club?
The Rams
The Rams left for California after the 2015 season, and thousands of fans at the first Battlehawks home game chanted against the owner who moved them, Stan Kroenke.
Q 10Which XFL team's fans made a tradition of stacking empty drink containers into 'beer snakes' at Audi Field?
DC Defenders
DC Defenders fans built a snake spanning several rows in March 2020, with the league's commissioner adding to it, and threw lemons onto the field in 2023 after security confiscated their snakes.
Q 11What nickname did the Los Angeles team carry when it won the only championship of the original XFL?
Xtreme
Xtreme players routed San Francisco 38–6, holding the losers scoreless until a third-string quarterback scrambled in during garbage time.
Q 12Which team had won all five of its games when the revived XFL's 2020 season was cut short?
Houston Roughnecks
Houston Roughnecks players opened with a 37–17 win and never lost, but no champion was crowned because the title game was never played.
Q 13Which team won the 2023 XFL title despite losing six of its ten regular-season games?
Arlington Renegades
Q 21Which familiar option for punt returners did the 2001 XFL abolish and then hype heavily in its marketing?
The fair catch
The fair catch was banned to force a return on every punt; in its place, tacklers had to stay five yards away until the returner had the ball.
Q 22Birmingham's 2001 XFL team became the Thunderbolts after residents objected to which original nickname?
Blast
Blast struck residents as a painful echo of the 1963 church bombing and a 1998 clinic bombing in the city, so the league changed it to something more benign.
Q 23What nickname did the 2001 XFL give its New York/New Jersey team, which played at Giants Stadium?
Hitmen
Hitmen fit the league's taste for names evoking crime or mayhem, and the team played in the XFL's first game, a 19–0 loss in Las Vegas that drew its biggest television audience.
Arlington Renegades squeezed into the playoffs at 4–6, then beat the top team in each division, with quarterback Luis Perez throwing three touchdowns in the final.
Q 14Which longtime Oklahoma Sooners coach became the revived XFL's first head coaching hire, taking charge in Dallas?
Bob Stoops
Bob Stoops had won a national title in 18 seasons with the Sooners, and in the XFL he doubled as his team's general manager.
Q 15Which quarterback was named the 2001 XFL's Most Valuable Player and later started for the Pittsburgh Steelers?
Tommy Maddox
Tommy Maddox had left football to work as an insurance agent before his comeback, and in 2002 he took Pittsburgh to the playoffs and was the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year.
Q 16Which Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback did the revived XFL say it had no interest in signing for 2020?
Johnny Manziel
Johnny Manziel was left out of the draft and the player allocations, even though the commissioner had said teams would be free to sign him.
Q 17Which former Indianapolis Colts punter quit as a 2020 XFL sideline reporter after only one week?
Pat McAfee
Pat McAfee withdrew because he felt uncomfortable in the role, then went on to host his own ESPN talk show and commentate for WWE.
Q 18What forced the revived XFL to abandon its comeback season after only five weeks of games?
The COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic stopped play on March 12, 2020, after a Seattle player was tested for the virus, and the league filed for bankruptcy a month later.
Q 19What was the main color of the Spalding game ball used by the 2001 XFL, marked with a red X?
Black
Black leather proved so slippery that the balls had to be rubbed with sandpaper before players could handle them.
Q 20What name was given to the 2001 XFL championship final because of the prize its winning players shared?
Million Dollar Game
Million Dollar Game replaced the tongue-in-cheek working title, the Big Game at the End of the Season, and split among the roster the pot came to about $26,000 a man.
Q 24Which ESPN documentary series included the 2017 film This Was the XFL, directed by a co-founder's son?
30 for 30
30 for 30 gave the film to Charlie Ebersol, whose father Dick built the league with Vince McMahon, and on camera McMahon mused about bringing the XFL back.
Q 25Which rival spring league did This Was the XFL director Charlie Ebersol help launch in 2019?
Alliance of American Football
Alliance of American Football games began a year before the XFL's return, but the league ran out of money and collapsed before finishing its only season.
Q 26Which camera view from behind the offense, later adopted across NFL coverage, did 2001 XFL telecasts help popularize?
Skycam
Skycam shots gave XFL games the look of a video game, and NFL broadcasters adopted the device after the league folded.
Q 27Which veteran sportscaster openly mocked the 2001 XFL and later grilled a defiant Vince McMahon on HBO?
Bob Costas
Bob Costas was allowed to opt out of covering the league for his own network, and his tense HBO interview with McMahon was later portrayed as an omen of the collapse.
Q 28In which California city did the XFL's promotional blimp crash onto a waterfront restaurant in January 2001?
Oakland
Oakland was hosting NFL playoff games that the blimp had been flying over; its pilots had to evacuate, and it drifted five miles before snagging a sailboat mast.
Q 29UPN's demand to shorten which WWF wrestling show prompted Vince McMahon to fold the XFL in May 2001?
SmackDown
SmackDown would have shrunk from two hours to ninety minutes as UPN's price for carrying a second XFL season, terms McMahon refused before closing the league.
Q 30The XFL ranked second on ESPN's list of the biggest flops in sports, behind which NFL quarterback?
Ryan Leaf
Ryan Leaf was the only flop ranked above the league, and TV Guide separately placed the XFL third on its list of the worst television shows of all time.