Orlando Rage

The Orlando Rage was an American football team based in Orlando, Florida as part of the XFL, begun by Vince McMahon of the World Wrestling Federation and by NBC, a major television network in the United States.

History

The team's colors were scarlet, yellow, navy blue and white with jersey numbers in a unique jagged font. They played their home games at Orlando's Florida Citrus Bowl, which was configured so that the upper deck was closed off and all fans were seated in the lower bowl to give a better appearance for television (a move that was effective, as the Rage had one of the stronger fan bases in the league, with average attendance at over two-thirds of the lower bowl's capacity; the team sold out all 36,000 lower bowl seats for its home opener).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The team's General Manager was Tom Veit a former Major League Soccer Vice-president and were coached by former Florida Gators head coach Galen Hall. They were in the XFL's Eastern Division with the NY/NJ Hitmen, Chicago Enforcers and Birmingham Thunderbolts.

The Rage were one of the two teams who opted not to don nicknames on the back of their jerseys. In the Rage's case, the decision was made by a majority vote of the players (despite the objections of starting quarterback Jeff Brohm, who openly embraced the XFL's approach to sports entertainment and wanted to wear "J Bro" on his jersey).<ref name=letsplayfootball>Template:Cite web</ref>

Jeff Brohm, at the time also under contract to the Cleveland Browns, was the quarterback of the Rage for most of the regular season, amassing a 6–0 record as starter during his first time at the helm. The team looked to be the league's powerhouse franchise under Brohm and was on pace for a perfect season (coincidentally, Orlando's next professional football team, the Florida Tuskers, would also win their first six games in a row before losing the seventh). He showed his toughness after he suffered an injury from a devastating hit by at the hands of Memphis Maniax defensive end Shante Carver in Week 5. Despite suffering a concussion in the hit and doctors' advice not to play, Brohm came back a week later against Las Vegas, giving a rousing speech stating that he was returning because it was the XFL and he still had a pulse.<ref name=letsplayfootball/> The following week he suffered a shoulder injury against the Los Angeles Xtreme and his season (and playing career) was done for good. It led to him being replaced by Brian Kuklick after six games. While Kuklick filled in the role of quarterback acceptably, the team lost a valuable leader on offense. The team went 2–2 in Kuklick's care; Kuklick, despite only starting four games, led the league in interceptions with 10.

The team finished their only regular season with an 8–2 record, the best in the league, but were upset in the first round of the playoffs by the 5–5 San Francisco Demons. Orlando had an early 16–0 advantage but allowed San Francisco to pull ahead and take a 26–16 lead by the fourth quarter. Using the XFL's newly introduced three-point conversion rule on a subsequent touchdown, the Rage got within one point but the Demons successfully ran out the clock and won 26–25. San Francisco would go on to lose the XFL Championship Game versus Los Angeles 38–6. Many in the league were disappointed, hoping for a match-up against the two division champions. NBC dropped the XFL after the first season (2001) due to dismal ratings, and the league folded soon afterward.

XFL returns to Florida

Template:Main In December 2018, the revival of the XFL announced that it would return to Florida. Because the Alliance of American Football's Orlando Apollos already laid claim to the Orlando market, the XFL opted to place the new team in Tampa, Florida, Template:Convert southwest of Orlando and connected to that city by way of Interstate 4. The league was exploring relocating the Vipers to Orlando shortly before the league suspended operations and went bankrupt in April 2020.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2022, the league, under new ownership, announced that the New York Guardians would relocate to Orlando as the Orlando Guardians. The team took the field on February 18, 2023. Following the XFL merger with the USFL that was the last season in Orlando

Season-by-season

Template:Start NFL SBS |- |2001 || 8 || 2 || 0 || 1st Eastern || Lost Semifinals (San Francisco) |- !Totals || 8 || 3 || 0 |colspan="2"| (including playoffs) Template:S-end

Schedule

Regular season

style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Week	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Date	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Opponent	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Result	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Record	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Venue
1	Template:Dow tooltip	Chicago Enforcers	W 33–29	1–0	Florida Citrus Bowl
2	Template:Dow tooltip	San Francisco Demons	W 26–14	2–0	Florida Citrus Bowl
3	February 18	at New York/New Jersey Hitmen	W 18–12	3–0	Giants Stadium
4	Template:Dow tooltip	Birmingham Thunderbolts	W 30–6	4–0	Florida Citrus Bowl
5	March 4	at Memphis Maniax	W 21–19	5–0	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium
6	Template:Dow tooltip	Las Vegas Outlaws	W 27–15	6–0	Florida Citrus Bowl
7	March 18	at Los Angeles Xtreme	L 6–31	6–1	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
8	March 25	New York/New Jersey Hitmen	W 17–12	7–1	Florida Citrus Bowl
9	Template:Dow tooltip	at Birmingham Thunderbolts	W 29–24	8–1	Legion Field
10	April 8	at Chicago Enforcers	L 6–23	8–2	Soldier Field

Post-season

style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Round	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Date	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Opponent	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Result	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Record	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Venue
Semi-final	Template:Dow tooltip	San Francisco Demons	L 25–26	0–1	Florida Citrus Bowl

Personnel

Staff

Template:NFL final staff Source:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Standings

Template:2001 XFL East standings Source:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Statistical leaders

Legend
	Led the league

Passing

style="text-align:center;Template:Gridiron primary style;"colspan="12"|Passing statistics
NAME	GP	GS	Record	Cmp	Att	Pct	Yds	TD	Int	Rtg
Brian Kuklick	5	3	2–1	68	122	55.7	994	6	10	64.7
Jeff Brohm	7	7	6–1	69	119	58.8	993	9	3	99.9
Totals	10	10	8–2	137	241	56.8	1,987	15	13	82.1

Rushing

style="text-align:center;Template:Gridiron primary style;"colspan="8"| Rushing statistics
NAME	Att	Yds	Avg	Lng	TD
Derrick Clark	94	395	4.2	19	7
Michael Black	83	320	3.9	20	0
Brian Shay	36	198	5.5	28t	2
Brian Kuklick	17	31	1.8	9	1
Jeff Brohm	16	67	4.2	33t	1
Mario Bailey	2	15	7.5	11	0
Totals	248	1,026	4.1	33	11

Receiving

style="text-align:center;Template:Gridiron primary style;"colspan="9| Receiving statistics
NAME	Rec	Yds	Avg	Lng	TD
Dialleo Burks	34	659	19.4	81t	7
Kevin Swayne	27	400	14.8	51t	2
Mario Bailey	27	379	14.0	49t	3
Derrick Clark	12	109	9.1	38	0
Lawrence Hart	12	104	8.7	26	1
Shannon Culver	10	165	16.5	49t	1
Terrance Huston	5	51	10.2	29	0
Tony Gaiter	4	62	15.5	22	0
Mike Black	3	31	10.3	14	0
Brian Shay	3	27	9.0	12t	1
Totals	137	1,987	14.5	81	15

Scoring

12-30 (40.0)% on extra point conversion attempts<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

style="text-align:center;Template:Gridiron primary style;"colspan="9| Total Scoring
NAME	Rush	Rec	Return	XPM	FGM	PTS
Derrick Clark	7	0	0	5	0	47
Dialleo Burks	0	7	0	2	0	44
Mario Bailey	0	3	1	2	0	26
Jay Taylor	0	0	0	0	7	21
Brian Shay	2	1	0	0	0	18
Kevin Swayne	0	2	0	1	0	13
Shannon Culver	0	1	0	1	0	7
Jeff Brohm	1	0	0	0	0	6
Omar Brown	0	0	1	0	0	6
Sedric Clark	0	0	1	0	0	6
Bill Duff	0	0	1	0	0	6
Lawrence Hart	0	1	0	0	0	6
Brian Kuklick	1	0	0	0	0	6
Mike Black	0	0	0	1	0	1
Totals	11	15	4	12	7	213

Awards and honors

Awards

Season	Coach	Award
2001	Galen Hall	Coach of the Year<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Honors

Season	Player	Position	Honor
2001	Jeff Brohm	QB	All-XFL team <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	James Burgess	LB
	Jason Gamble	G