It’s appropriate that the XFL’s DC Defenders, the District’s entry in the new spring football league that begins play on Saturday at Audi Field, practices in the literal shadow of the home of Washington’s NFL team.

It’s a sunny, late January afternoon at Prince George’s Sports & Learning Complex in Landover, Maryland. As FedEx Field looms in the distance, practice has come to an end for D.C.’s newest football franchise but players still mill around conversing with one another. Pep Hamilton, the Defenders’ head coach, is mid-field, taking questions from reporters. The longtime coach cut his teeth for more than two decades working for professional and college teams from New York to San Francisco. He’s also a local, having played quarterback and coached at Howard University in the 1990s.

In the midst of questions, a wind gusts kicks up, turning a mid-40s day a bit colder. “When you play football here in Washington, D.C., in February, it may not always be as nice as it is today,” says Hamilton, “I hope when [we play] it is exactly the weather it is right now.”

At least in the beginning, it will be hard not to compare the DC Defenders to the District’s other professional football team. But that franchise comes with a deep history of despised ownership, a name that’s a dictionary-defined slur, long-gone glory, and a crumbling former stadium. This new team, born in 2018 and given a rather milquetoast name this past summer, has something valuable that the local NFL franchise doesn’t: A proverbial clean slate.

“We are a start-up in a brand new league,” Defenders’ team president Erik Moses, formerly of the city’s quasi-public convention and sports authority Events DC, told DCist a few weeks earlier in a conference room at the team offices near Dupont Circle. “We have an opportunity to make history, one way or another, in launching a new professional league and team right here in the nation’s capital.”

The XFL as a league does have some history. The original XFL, sans a D.C. team, launched in 2001 to big-time fanfare. It didn’t go well. Founded by WWE CEO (and sometimes wrestler) Vince McMahon, the league looked to fuse professional wrestling with football. It featured violent hits, weird stunts involving cameras in the cheerleaders’ locker room, and allowed players to choose their own monikers for the back of their jerseys (remember He Hate Me?). The focus was on gimmicks and over-the-top early-2000s entertainment. It was decidedly not on the sport of football. For that, it suffered. A rash of injuries knocked out star players, the quality of play was criticized, and the league was roundly mocked by the media. It folded after only one season and McMahon went back to getting beaten up by the Undertaker.

19 years later, McMahon is trying again. In January 2018, WWE’s CEO announced that the XFL was coming back with a $100 million investment and a renewed focus on the sport. Calling it “professional football reimagined,” there would be rule changes to quicken the game’s pace, no pro wrestling-style gimmicks, and efforts to sign college stars and former NFLers who are looking to make it back to the big-time. Later, a ten-week regular season schedule was announced beginning the week after the Super Bowl and ending with a championship game in late April. The games will be broadcast nationally on FOX, ABC, and ESPN.

In late 2018, D.C. was announced as one of eight cities to have a franchise with their home games to be played outdoors at Audi Field. In August 2019, D.C. got the Defenders nickname (other cities also got bland names like the Wildcats and Guardians) and a hype video. And on Saturday at 2 pm, they will take on the Seattle Dragons in the first game in the new XFL’s history.

It’s not hard to understand the appeal of the new XFL and this team. For one thing, there’s the price: DC Defenders season tickets, which consist of five home games, start at $100 for an average of $20 a game. The smallest ticket package of eight games for Washington’s NFL team, on the other hand, goes for $690 (before taxes), or an average of $86.25 a game.

A commitment to being more fan-centric is also a huge selling point. The Defenders have already held several events where fans could directly interact with players. One such gathering was held indoors at Audi Field where players mingled among fans happy to talk football, pose for pictures, and sign autographs. There’s far less of a barrier between players and fans than there is in the NFL.

This is particularly fun for those younger. Kevin Fritz lives in Alexandria and attended that Audi Field event with his daughter Violet and son Griffin. Fritz says that he purchased season tickets because it’s something local and affordable he can do with his kids. “We went to a practice in November and Griffin came out of there saying it was the best thing he’d ever been to,” he says. “We built a shield [with the DC Defenders logo] together. He’s all excited.”

Jill Sechser, who also lives in Alexandria, is originally from the Midwest and a fan of the NFL’s Chicago Bears. Sechser says being a Defender season ticket holder appealed to her because it’s a chance to get in on the ground floor of something new. “My normal football team isn’t local, so I can be a fan of this new team from the very beginning,” she says.

Defenders team president Moses says this is absolutely something that the Defenders are leaning into. “This notion of a shared experience is something people will always be inclined towards [doing], especially, in this city,” says Moses. “Sports has a unique way of drawing people together, to bridge gaps, and to get people into one place and rooting for the same team.”

Over the past 20 months, D.C. as a sports city has had plenty to root for. The Capitals won the Stanley Cup in June 2018, the Mystics won the WNBA championship in October 2019, and the Nationals won the World Series three weeks later. On top of that, the D.C. region also has had a consistently good University of Maryland basketball program (both women’s and men’s), and an electric scorer in the Wizards’ Bradley Beal. The city’s NBA G League team, the Capital City Go-Go, meanwhile, plays in the shiny new Entertainment and Sports Arena, along with the Mystics.

Despite plentiful sports options, Moses thinks there’s still space for another football team in this city—even though, the Arena Football League’s Washington Valor just closed up shop in December. He thinks the “tangible D.C. love” that is going on right now in the city only works to their advantage. Saying “football is still king” in America, he’s confident that avid fans will be interested in what the XFL has to offer. What he and the Defenders are aiming for is to get others to come to games. “You also have to get casual fans [to be successful] and this town is a big events town. It’s about what’s hot now and going on now.”

Moses thinks that a collection of rule changes meant to increase action and shorten games, like three-point conversions, overtime shootouts, and a running game clock, will help. In-stadium experiences that create a “festival-type environment” (something Audi Field is accustomed to with the DC United) will also attempt to bring in fans of all stripes, Moses says.

“We’re not competing with the NFL. We’re not asking people to give up their allegiance to the teams that they grew up with and always rooted for,” he says. “We’re asking for them to add the Defenders to that group.”

It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for this new reincarnation of the XFL. Back in 2018, while announcing the XFL’s return, Vince McMahon made it a point to say that everyone would be playing by his rules and that he wouldn’t allow players to kneel during the national anthem as a form of protest. “People don’t want social and political issues coming into play when they are trying to be entertained,” McMahon told ESPN at the time. “We want someone who wants to take a knee to do their version of that on their personal time.”

While McMahon couched this as a taking stand against talking about politics, context says it may be anything but. McMahon’s wife, Linda McMahon, is President Donald Trump’s former head of Small Business Administration and is now chair of the president’s 2020 Super PAC. She has also run for U.S. Senate twice.

When asked how those “no kneeling” comments may play in D.C., Moses says he thinks the point we can take away from that is that the XFL and DC Defenders are looking to avoid divisiveness. “We want our games to be a break from that and to allow people every opportunity to come together and find that commonality between each other,” says Moses. “Maybe that sounds kind of naive and Pollyannaish.”

Back on the practice field, the players are here to play ball and make a name for themselves. Several have local ties, including former University of Maryland tight end Derrick Hayward. He says he’s excited for opening day because his family is going to come down from Salisbury, Maryland, to watch. He expects to have a loud cheering section.

“We are going to have a big [University of] Maryland fanbase here, so it will be coming out to a home crowd,” says Hayward.

Rasheed Ross was a wide receiver for Washington’s NFL team back in 2015 and 2016, playing his home games in the mammoth stadium in the background. His aim is to impress in the XFL so he gets a second look from the NFL. He also feels valued and appreciated here, something that may not always be the case in other pro leagues. “I feel like an actual priority instead of just a body [on the roster],” he says.

Hamilton, who is also the general manager and put together the roster, says he went out of his way to find players who were tough, smart, and looking for a chance. He also says it’s not a coincidence that the roster is populated with players with experience, be it in the pros or college, playing in cold and extreme weather. The Defenders and the New York Guardians are the league’s only two teams on the east coast that will be playing their home games outside.

“I’ve been in D.C. a long time, since I came to Howard in 1992,” Hamilton says. “We have had Nor’Easters in the past. We can use the weather conditions to our advantage.”

The sun is lower in the sky now as all but few of the players have head into the locker room for the day. It’s dinner time and some have already jumped in their cars with still relatively new teammates to grab a bite to eat. Hamilton, who lives in Eastern Market and has had a kinship with D.C. for nearly three decades, says he loves recommending restaurants to his players. However, his motives aren’t simply to get them to explore the city.

“I’m just trying to make sure they eat clean,” says Hamilton with a laugh, “and stay away from the wings and mumbo sauce.”

The DC Defenders play the Seattle Dragons at Audi Field on Saturday at 2 p.m. Tickets start at $15.