FSU Alums: Handful of former Noles picked by XFL team in Tampa Bay

FSU will have plenty of representation the way things played out when the Tampa Bay Vipers picked their first team to starting playing in the 2020 season.

Each April, plenty of former stars for the FSU football team look forward to the chance of being drafted by one of the 32 teams that make up the NFL – and while it doesn’t always come true for every single former Seminole, there are several other leagues that allow the chance to keep playing football and getting paid for it.

One of the newest leagues is the XFL, which is starting for the second time during the 2020 season. The second time is because the original XFL lasted for just one season during the year 2001 as a partnership between what was then called the World Wrestling Federation and its TV partner at the time, NBC.

This time, the league has taken a couple years to get started, has new television partners but did something that every league does – draft former FSU players if they want this thing to succeed.

This past week, the eight teams that make up the new version of the XFL drafted their 71 players for the upcoming season – and the one team in the state of Florida, the Tampa Bay Vipers, made it very clear that they want garnet and gold on their rosters during the upcoming season by taking four players.

The Vipers aren’t the only ones who took a former FSU player – this isn’t like the Alliance of American Football, where colleges were assigned to a specific team in the region like the Orlando Apollos – as the St. Louis Battlehawks drafted defensive back Marquez White, who spent time previously in the NFL.

These former FSU stars will hope to be wearing the lime green, dark green and gold of the Tampa Bay Vipers when the XFL kicks off – hopefully this time for longer than one season – on February 8th.