Orlando Guardians’ XFL quarterback sold plays to opposing teams?

Through two weeks in the XFL season, the Orlando Guardians are 0-2, in last place in the XFL South. Their offense has been particularly inept, scoring just twelve points in each game and absolutely zero points in the second or third quarters of each game. Quarterback Paxton Lynch has been clowned on and memed into eternity as the only quarterback in history to be benched in the NFL, USFL, and now XFL. However, that may not have been his fault.

According to reports, Guardians’ backup QB Quinten Dormady had been giving his team’s offensive plays to their opponents. After being cut by the team yesterday though, the XFL reinstated Dormady today. According to a statement from XFL Vice President of Communications Jeff Altstadter, “The league is actively reviewing a personnel issue regarding a player on the Orlando Guardians who was released from the team yesterday afternoon.” The statement continued, “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 statement did not directly name Dormady, nor did it clarify whether or not Dormady was reinstated by the league or the team.

Two weeks in and we have our first XFL controversy

Obviously, this is a bad look for the XFL if the allegations against Dormady are true. The league is trying to create a culture that can compete with the NFL, and a player sabotaging his own team is objectively not great. That said, the decision to sell his team’s plays to their opponents would be an all-time dumb move by Dormady, right?

Think about it. If true, Dormady is either so hesitant in his own talents that he’s trying to make a few extra bucks before the league realizes how awful he is, or (more likely) he thinks “If I sell these plays, then Paxton Lynch will do terribly in front of me. Then, I’ll get the opportunity to play and shine. Then, I’ll land a huge contract and be set for life!”

One problem, dude. You and Lynch use the same playbook! Was Dormady planning to stop selling his team’s plays after he was named the starter? It doesn’t make sense. If you give your plays away to your opponents, regardless of who is under center, you’re going to have a difficult time beating the defense. If anything, that raises some doubt to the allegations. You’d have to be super duper mega dumb to pull a move like that.

Furthermore, maybe the Guardians are just as bad as their offense has played. Prior to the season, they were considered one of the worst teams in the league due to their inexperienced coaching staff and questionable quarterback situation. Now, the team did add Lynch a few weeks after those rankings came out, but as people have pointed out, Lynch has never succeeded anywhere he’s gone. Maybe he just can’t lead an offense at all.

Let me be clear, I’m not defending Dormady. Although we don’t know whether or not he gave his team’s plays away, the Guardians must have had some evidence to the affirmative, given how quickly they cut Dormady after conducting their investigation. We are currently unsure what information the league obtained that was reason enough to reinstate Dormady, but it had to have been pretty eye-opening to make such a drastic move less than 24 hours after the man was cut.

The Guardians play the Arlington Renegades tomorrow at 4 pm ET tomorrow. I guarantee Dormady won’t be the most popular guy in that Orlando locker room before the game.