I’m excited But Worried about the Battlehawks debut.

First Let me say Congratulation to the Kansas City Chiefs on winning their first Super Bowl title in 50 years. Now on February 9th the city of St.Louis will begin a brand new era of professional football when the St. Louis Battlehawks will play on the road in Dallas. No, not at Jerry World and no not against the hated Cowboys, but the Dallas Renegades in the rebirth of Vince McMahon’s XFL that failed after one season in 2001. As a former resident of St. Louis I’m very excited about the upcoming inaugural season that will be playing The Dome at America’s Center, which I plan to watch the team play their home opener on February 23th against the New York Guardians. I plan to attend the tailgate event with some of the fans before the game. I’m not a beer drinker nor I’m not even meat-eater, but I plan to have fun with the fans and enjoy the activities before opening kickoff on that day. This will be the first time that I’ve attended a Pro Football game in St. Louis when the Rams played against the Steelers who are now my favorite team, but I wanted the home team the Rams to win that game. This leads me to some very important thoughts about the Battlehawks, coach Jonathan Hayes and Team President, Kurt Hunzeker; St. Louis is a very good sports town but they’ve never been blessed with long term success in Pro Football.

I’ve been on this earth 45 years and I’ve seen the highs when the Rams won the Super Bowl 20 years ago and I’ve seen the low when I saw both Rams and the Football Cardinals produce bad football play on the field.  I don’t blame fans for giving up the NFL for their crony business model and the way they jerk around the fans. I don’t blame fans in St. Louis showing little interest after which over 50 years of bad football from both the Football Cardinals and the Rams. I’ve seen the pain and despair when both franchises moved out west and left an ugly mark on the market that has been abused by outside sportswriters, who don’t live in St. Louis, as a baseball town despite the success of the St.Louis Blues winning the Stanely Cup and the city that hosted the NHL All-Star game a week ago. Ditto to the Kansas City Chiefs who just won their first Super Bowl title in 50 years and decided to market their team in St. Louis since the Rams moved back to L.A. It’s not St. Louis Baseball Cardinals ownership fault for producing 11 World Series trophies, because of some of the greatest players who helped build a championship legacy for the franchise, which leads to my next point about St. Louis Battlehawks and their upcoming season. In order for Pro Football to survive in St. Louis the team must finish above .500 to keep the fanbase energized and be excited about their franchise. Coach Jonathan Hayes needs to coach a winning team in order for them to have a successful season. Even if the team falls short in winning the XFL Championship, fans will still come out supporting a winning product. Team President Kurt Hunzeker has done a really good job with advertising the team throughout St.Louis  area and fans have been energized and hyped about their football team. But anything less than a .500 season the fans will start to abandon the team’s support and local sportswriters like the St. Louis Post Dispatch will start question whether it’s worth supporting the Battlehawks. I’ve seen it before with my eyes with both the St. Louis football Cardinals and I’ve seen with the Rams. And while I’m excited to see Pro Football Back in St. Louis I’m also nervous about the long term success of the Battlehawks. Good Luck on a successful year as St.Louis gives it another try in supporting their Pro Football.

Advertisement