The 2023 XFL championship game was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

game on May 13, 2023, at the

Alamodome The Alamodome is a 64,000-seat domed indoor multi-purpose stadium in San Antonio, Texas. It is located on the southeastern fringe of downtown San Antonio. The facility opened on May 15, 1993, having been constructed at a cost of $186 milli ...

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

. The contest determined the champion of the

2023 XFL season The 2023 XFL season was the second season in the reboot of the XFL, the first under its new ownership group of Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, and Gerry Cardinale (RedBird Capital), and the third in the history of the XFL brand created and origina ...

and was played between the South Division title winners

Arlington Renegades The Arlington Renegades are a professional American football team based in Arlington, Texas. The Renegades compete in the United Football League (UFL) as a member of the XFL Conference. The team was founded as the Dallas Renegades by Vince McMah ...

and the North Division title winners

DC Defenders The DC Defenders are a professional American football team based in Washington, D.C. The Defenders compete in the United Football League (2024), United Football League (UFL) as a member of the XFL Conference. The team was founded by Vince McMaho ...

. The game began at 8:00 p.m. EDT and was aired on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

Background

The game was the first and only championship game of the second stint of the XFL as a standalone league. In the first stint of the XFL, there was only one championship game held, the Million Dollar Game in 2001. The league folded shortly after the game was played. A championship game was scheduled for the end of the

2020 XFL season The 2020 XFL season was the first season in the reboot of the XFL, and the second in the history of the XFL brand created and owned by professional wrestling magnate Vince McMahon, coming 19 years after the 2001 XFL season. The season began on ...

but was forbidden from taking place due to

stay-at-home order A stay-at-home order, safer-at-home order, movement control order – also referred to by loose use of the terms quarantine, isolation, or lockdown – is an order from a government authority that restricts movements of a population as a mass qu ...

s and gathering restrictions tied to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, which forced the premature end of the 2020 season after five weeks of play.

Host selection

On February 19, 2023, the

was selected as host for the first edition of the championship. The Alamodome is a 64,000-seat venue in the southeastern fringe of Downtown San Antonio. Opened in May 1993, the stadium is home to one of the XFL's own teams,

San Antonio Brahmas The San Antonio Brahmas are a professional American football team based in San Antonio, Texas. The Brahmas compete in the United Football League (UFL) as a member of the XFL Conference. The team is owned and operated by Dwayne Johnson's Alpha ...

. The stadium is also known as the home stadium for the UTSA Roadrunners football program and the annual

Alamo Bowl The Alamo Bowl is an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played annually since 1993 in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Since 2010 it matches the second choice team from the Pac-12 Conference and the second ...

XFL playoffs

The four teams competing in the playoff clinched their spot during their regular season during different times of the overall season of the league. The top two placed teams in each division would face against each other for the division title. Whichever division title game team won, would then face the other champion from the other division in the XFL Championship Game. Both DC Defenders and Houston Roughnecks clinched their spot after Week 8. Lastly, both Arlington Renegades and Seattle Sea Dragons clinched their spot after Seattle won their last regular season game and San Antonio lost their last regular season game. Controversy began as St. Louis Battlehawks were eliminated from the playoffs at the end of the season and had a higher overall record than Arlington Renegades (yet being in two separate divisions), the Battlehawks placed third in the North division after failing the tie-breakers against the Seattle Sea Dragons. The Division Finals were played on April 29 and April 30, 2023. In the South Division Final title game,

upset Houston Roughnecks as 6.5 point underdogs, 26–11. In the North Division Final title game,

defeated Seattle Sea Dragons 37–21.

Bracket

Teams

DC Defenders

DC Defenders finished their second overall season under head coach Reggie Barlow, going 9–1 and advancing to their first playoff berth to the division title game against Seattle Sea Dragons.

Arlington Renegades

Arlington Renegades finished their second overall season under head coach

Bob Stoops Robert Anthony Stoops (born September 9, 1960) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Arlington Renegades of the United Football League (UFL). He was the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1999 through ...

, going 4–6 and advancing to their first playoff berth to the division title game against Houston Roughnecks (South Division leaders).

Game summary

Scoring summary

Statistics

Aftermath

2023 XFL Championship post-game celebration

Renegades

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

Luis Perez, previously named to the all-XFL team, was named the game's

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particular competition, or ...

. In accordance with the XFL's incentive-based pay structure, Perez and the rest of the Renegades roster won $12,500 per player for their victory. After the game,

has officially announced that the league would return in February 2024, featuring the same eight teams that competed during the 2023 season. On December 31, 2023, the XFL merged with a competing league, the

United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

, to form the United Football League, thereby contracting four of the teams from each league but keeping each entity alive as separate conferences; on February 5, 2024, the league announced along with its schedule that separate USFL and XFL Championship Games would continue to be held as part of its playoff structure, with the winners of each moving on to the 2024 UFL Championship.

References

{{2023 XFL season

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

2023 in American football XFL Championship Game 2023 in American television 2023 in San Antonio Arlington Renegades DC Defenders XFL Championship Game XFL Championship Game