The Seattle Sea Dragons do not have much time to lament their season-opening heartbreaking loss at the D.C. Defenders.
That’s because the Dragons, after coming 1 yard from a likely victory then seeing it vanish with a fumble in the final 20 seconds of a 22-18 defeat, have their first home game Thursday night against the St. Louis BattleHawks at Lumen Field.
So, after the loss, the Dragons flew back to their base in Arlington, Texas and returned to practice Monday before flying to Seattle on Wednesday for the Thursday game.
Even before Sunday’s loss, Sea Dragons coach Jim Haslett was anticipating the home opener for his team.
“Hopefully, we’ll have good crowd noise when we go up there for our second game,” Haslett said.
For some players, the trip to Seattle this week could their first trip to the city. That’s not so for receiver Josh Gordon, who spent time with the Seahawks in 2019-20.
Cornerback Linden Stephens played for the Seahawks in 2020, defensive lineman Sama Paama is a former UW Husky, running back Charlie Taumoepau graduated from Federal Way High School and offensive lineman Colin Kelly is from Kelso.
“I know Josh Gordon is very excited and we have a lot of players from the Washington area, so I know they’re looking forward to going back and they’ve got family coming,” Haslett said.
Said Gordon at a fan event in Seattle last month: “It kind of feels like a home away from home to me. It’s good to see a familiar place.”
Sea Dragons quarterback Ben DiNucci was with the Dallas Cowboys in 2020 when they played at Lumen Field. But because that was during the pandemic, it was without fans, so he said he did not get the full experience.
“Seattle is an awesome sports town and they love their sports there,” DiNucci said. “I’m pretty familiar with the stadium and hopefully it’ll be rocking with the 12th Man for us there on Thursday. I’ve heard a lot about it and I’m excited to get up there.”
The Seattle Dragons drew 29,172 fans for their first game in 2020, in the previous reboot of the XFL (the league came into existence with one season in 2001).
The crowd in Washington, D.C. for Sunday night’s game was not available.
San Antonio drew 24,245 to its home opener Sunday. Arlington drew 12,047 to its opener Saturday and Houston drew 12,784 on Saturday.
XFL president Russ Brandon was unavailable to answer questions about the anticipated crowd size Thursday and if the league believes having the team not based in Seattle might impact attendance.
DiNucci took a moment after Sunday’s loss to look ahead, telling a reporter:
“We’re going up there Thursday, put some points on the board and hopefully the outcome’s flipped and (we’ll) give people some stuff to cheer about.”