Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

The new-look XFL will kick off on Saturday, and former Callaway Cavalier KeShun Freeman is one of the players hoping to make the league a success.

The previous incarnation of the XFL lasted one year before it went defunct, but the league organizers are hoping for better success the second time around.

The league includes veteran players who have been a part of professional football for years, as well as relative newcomers, including Freeman.

Freeman, who was a four-year starter at Georgia Tech from 2014 to 2017, was with the New Orleans Saints during the 2018 preseason, but he didn’t make the team’s regular-season roster.

Freeman was also a part of the Alliance of American Football, which made it halfway through its debut season before it disbanded.

Now, Freeman is giving a new league a try, and he’s a member of the DC Defenders, one of eight teams in the league.

Freeman will be a starting linebacker for the Defenders as they open the season with a home game against the Seattle Dragons on Saturday at 2 p.m., and the game will air on ABC.

That will be one of 10 regular-season games for the Defenders.

Freeman was an all-state player at Callaway, and he helped lead the team to its first-ever state semifinal appearance in 2013.

Freeman then went to Georgia Tech where he moved right into the starting lineup as a freshman, and he was a key member of the defense for four seasons.

After his dalliance with the NFL, Freeman was one of hundreds of players who joined the Alliance of American Football.

In 2019, Freeman played for the Atlanta Legends, who were halfway through the season when the league folded.

Freeman wasn’t unemployed for long as he was drafted by the DC Defenders in October, and he earned a starting spot following an impressive training camp.

OF NOTE: The head coach of the Defenders is Jim Zorn, who played quarterback in the NFL for nearly 20 years…Washington’s quarterback is Cardale Jones, who led Ohio State to a national championship…The league’s top-two teams at the close of the regular season will meet in the championship game on April 26, and the game will air on ESPN…For more on the league, go to XFL.com