Kevin Gilbride and Janet Duch officially named Head Coach/GM and President of XFL NY

After a long drought, the XFL is back on the road. Today’s stop is New York, specifically the AC Hotel in Time Square to announce the Head Coach/GM and President of the local franchise.

Today’s press conference started off with CEO and Commissioner Luck talking going over the usual XFL highlights.

Mentioning with 10 months out, that they have the luxury of time due to Vince McMahon’s capitol backing. He also briefly spoke about the broadcast partners, which will be announced soon. Luck brought up the testing they were conducting during The Spring League, and mentioned that the broadcast partners were on hand for the games to assist in the vision.

Luck than introduced Kevin Gilbride as the next Head Coach. Before welcoming him to the stage he brought up that Gilbride has over 40 years of coaching experience (college and pro), specifically with 10 seasons with NY Giants, which led to two Super Bowl Championships with Eli Manning.

Kevin Gilbride took the stage and thanks Luck and the press. He’s excited to have a chance to help grow the league, and he’s been really impressed with the people he’s met within the XFL so far.

Gilbride said he is happy to be back into coaching, and is intrigued that he is able to be at the ground level. He can’t wait to re-imagine football, but said that it isn’t going to go too far and it still will be traditional football.

He spoke about how important it’s going to be to find the right people to surround himself with, that will help him scout talent and help build the players, the team and the league.

Gilbride then thanked his family, and spoke about how he originally resigned due to the amount of time he was able to spend with his wife and family. He joked that he has told his stories so many times that his grandchildren and finish them for him, so he decided it was time to get back into coaching.

Luck came back to the stage and welcomed President and COO Jeffrey Pollack to the stage to announce the President of the New York franchise. Pollack spoke about the recent Present hires they’ve made in Los Angeles, DC and Tampa.

Pollack named Jannet Duch as the President of the franchise, siting that she spent 18 years at MSG  as Senior VP of Marketing, and most recently was Senior VP for OnLocation Experiences.

Duch came out and mentioned that she is a hometown girl, and sports have been a huge part of that growing up. She mentioned working with the Knicks and Rangers, and talked about how the local fans want the teams to reflect their daily life. She wants the XFL fans to be part of her journey every step of the way, she wants to listen to the fans to find out what’s important to them. She then thanks everyone for attending and viewing online.

Also, don’t forget. We have another press conference this week on Thursday to announce the Head Coach/GM of the St. Louis franchise.