The St. Louis Battlehawks of the XFL are relocating their football team to Los Angeles…. sike!
The Battlehawks social media crew fooled the masses Saturday with the perfect April Fool’s joke. St. Louis released a long statement to Twitter saying they’d be moving their beloved football organization to Inglewood, California after this season. They wrote, “following a vote from XFL owners, the Battlehawks have been officially approved to relocate to the greater Los Angeles area and will do so for the 2024 season.”
“St. Louis is a city known for its incredibly hard-working, passionate, and proud people. Bringing the XFL back to St. Louis in 2023 will go down as one of the proudest moments in our league’s history. This move isn’t about whether we love St. Louis or its fans, but rather about what is in the best interest of the Battlehawks organization,” they added.
An official statement from the St. Louis Battlehawks and the XFL: pic.twitter.com/MPBcL5CyOj
— St. Louis Battlehawks (@XFLBattlehawks) April 1, 2023
After nine minutes of unmitigated disappointment for the passionate football fans of St. Louis, Battlehawks’ head coach Anthony Becht replied with a GIF of a guy wagging his finger no, indicating the statement was just a cruel April Fool’s joke.
https://t.co/082chVHj1H pic.twitter.com/BIp4V7Zpmc
— Anthony Becht (@Anthony_Becht) April 1, 2023
The Battlehawks would admit in their very next tweet that it was a prank while wishing one of their players a happy birthday, but man, what a brilliantly executed joke.
Having another professional football organization leave St. Louis for Los Angeles AGAIN would have been cruel to do to their supporters. St. Louis Rams fans were gypped when the team decided to up and leave the city for LA back in 2016. During the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, the Rams were one of the best teams in football. There was a six-season stretch where the Rams made it to the postseason from 1999 to 2004, and even won the Super Bowl in the 1999-2000 season. From their championship campaign in 1999 all the way to the 2006 season, the Rams’ high-scoring offense was famously known as the “Greatest Show on Turf.”
When the Rams left St. Louis for LA, I felt like it was wrong to do to the fans who had cheered them on so passionately. For the Battlehawks social media team to pull a prank like this on their fans was harsh and I’m sure it made a few fans sick to their stomach. It was a hilarious April Fool’s joke, but I think it hit a little bit too close to home. (RELATED: ‘You Don’t Want To Play For Belichick’: Retired NFL Star Asante Samuel Pleads With QB To Avoid Playing For Patriots)
Earlier in the season, Battlehawks fans set an XFL attendance record in their home opener against the Arlington Renegades with over 38,000 people turning up, KMOV News reported.