There is a new professional football team in Tampa that will begin play in February of 2020. They will be called the Tampa Bay Vipers and will be part of Vince McMahon’s new spring football league the XFL.
This will be a 10 team league and all the Viper home games will be played at Raymond James Stadium.
Joining Tampa Bay in the new spring league will be teams from Dallas, Washington DC, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Seattle, Houston, and New York.
The league will be ran by commissioner Oliver Luck who happens to be the father of Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck.
Marc Trestman wil be the head coach and general manager of the Tampa Bay Vipers. Trestman has had a long and distinguished 35 year coaching career that includes stops in the both the NFL and the CFL.
Trestman got his coaching career started in 1985 as running backs coach for the Minnesota Vikings and in 1987 was quarterback coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Trestman’s most recent NFL coaching experience was in Chicago where he was head coach of the Chicago Bears in 2013 and 2014. During his rookie season of 2013, the Bears were second in the league in scoring, fifth in total offensive yardage, and broke team records in total yards, passing yards, passing touchdowns and first downs made.
Trestman’s teams in the CFL won three Grey Cups. He did it twice with Montreal in 2009 and 2010, and most recently with Toronto in 2017.
Jerry Glanville will be the defensive coordinator. Glanville has been a head coach at the NFL level with the Houston Oilers and the Atlanta Falcons compiling a 60-69 won loss record.
Granville last coached in the NFL in 1993 and was most recently
Defensive coordinator of the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL in 2018.
Training camp for the Tampa Bay Vipers will begin in December at the former spring training complex of the Cincinnati Reds in Plant City.
The ten game regular season schedule will kick off on February 8th and run through the first week of April.
