XFL player released for giving another team plays from own playbook
The XFL isn't the most exciting product on the field, but a story broke Friday that reveals the best drama in the revamped football league is happening off the field.
Dov Kleiman reported QB Quinten Dormady of the Orlando Guardians allegedly gave opposing teams plays from his own team's playbook and was subsequently cut by the Orlando following an investigation.
His season stats have been removed from the XFL website but are still available via the Guardians' Week 1 box score.
The XFL later reinstated Dormady. The league released a statement on the situation:
“The league is actively reviewing a personnel issue regarding a player on the Orlando Guardians who was released from the team yesterday afternoon.
“Additional information on the situation was brought to the attention of the league overnight, and the league has reinstated the player while it conducts a formal investigation into the issue. The situation is under review, and we will share more details regarding the findings as appropriate.”
The XFL will conduct a more "formal investigation," according to Fox News.
Orlando is 0-2 and has been outscored, 63-24. The minus-39 point differential is the worst in the league.
The good news for the Guardians is few people have seen their poor start. The season kicked off on Feb. 18 with a four-game opening weekend slate on ABC and ESPN.
After averaging 1.3 million viewers in Week 1, viewership dropped roughly 50 percent in Week 2 to an average of 655,000 viewers.
The league has been praised for its fast replay review, however, and the swiftness of those decisions extended to its off-the-field investigation of Dormady.
Dormady played in the team's 33-12 loss to the Houston Roughnecks in Week 1, finishing 12-for-18 for 142 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. He was also sacked three times.
He didn't play in the team's Week 2 loss to the San Antonio Brahmas when the team finished with 87 passing yards.
Dormady was named the starting QB his junior season at Tennessee in 2017 before being benched against Georgia after going 5-of-16 for 64 yards and two interceptions.
He transferred to Houston in 2018 and only had five pass attempts before getting the starting job at Central Michigan as a fifth-year senior in 2019. He went undrafted by the NFL in 2020.
Most players are taking the XFL opportunity to get a spot in an NFL training camp, but Dormady is more likely to attract the eyes of Netflix producers.
If he's opportunistic, the former QB can parlay this latest setback into a role in the second season of the reality competition show "The Mole."
Like the XFL, the Netflix series was brought back to life after initially running in the early 2000s. Unlike the XFL, sabotage is celebrated on that show, where one player is "secretly ... tasked by producers to undermine the players' efforts... while staying under the radar and above suspicion."
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