Know My Name: Anthony Becht St. Louis Battlehawks Head Coach
March 30, 2023 - XFL (XFL)
St. Louis Battlehawks News Release
Anthony Becht's journey to the XFL started in August 2020 with a notepad and a pencil.
Becht read the news that Dany Garcia, Dwayne Johnson and RedBird Capital had purchased the XFL. And he wanted in.
Not as a broadcaster. Not as an assistant coach. Not as an administrator.
Becht wanted to be a head coach.
"I didn't know anybody, didn't have any connections," Becht said. "I just started trying to connect dots with people that were kind of involved, maybe consulting, and see how can I get to them."
Becht, 45, has spent his entire life around football. He had been a first-round pick out of West Virginia in the 2000 NFL Draft. He had spent 12 years in the NFL as a tight end. He had broadcast games on ESPN. He has been a mentor for retiring players through the NFLPA.
However, Becht had never been a head coach. His only coaching experience came in 2019 with the San Diego Fleet of the AAF as the tight ends coach.
That didn't matter to him. Becht wanted to lead a team. He knew he could do it and do it well.
About 31 months after first jotting down his hopes and plans, Becht is not just a head coach in the XFL. He is the head coach in a city he played in 15 years prior. He has proven his value as a leader. He has steered the team to memorable comebacks and thrilling victories. Plus, he has the St. Louis Battlehawks tied for the second-best record in the XFL.
"I always thought I was gonna be a head coach but nobody had me on the radar early on," Becht said. "I've always had it in me. It's just the timing wasn't right. Having some experience in a former spring league, I pushed myself to just say, this is something I want to do. The stars aligned for me."
Becht soon got connected with current XFL President Russ Brandon, who at the time was just consulting for the league. The two talked over the phone in late 2020 and Becht felt it was a good start. Brandon said Becht should submit a resume when the time came.
About a year went by from that initial conversation before the idea started picking up steam again, this time with Marc Ross, the XFL's executive vice president of football operations.
Ross was living in Hoboken, N.J., and Becht was spending every December weekend in the area doing work for the New York Jets. So Becht reached out to Ross to see if they could grab coffee while he was in town.
On two days' notice, Ross asked if Becht could get together that forthcoming weekend.
"I changed my flight, got there at 6 a.m. and met him at the coffee shop," Becht said. "It turned into a three-hour conversation. We'd never met each other. We knew each other. I knew all those guys, just never really had those relationships. But you get that one chance to impress somebody and really sell a vision."
The two then reconnected in person again Super Bowl week in Los Angeles. They met at a hotel and Becht felt like he was getting close to the job.
Then he was told to hop on a Zoom call with Garcia. Becht thought she was the final person he needed to convince to believe in him.
He was wrong.
"The first thing she said to me, she's like, 'Listen. This is not an interview. You got the job. You're our guy. We did our due diligence. I trust our people. Welcome to the team,'" Becht said. "It was pretty sweet."
Becht was given the honor of coaching the Battlehawks. The opportunity to coach in the XFL was what he wanted. But the opportunity to coach in St. Louis - where he played for the St. Louis Rams in 2008 - with a rabid fanbase supporting them every game humbled Becht.
Not that he needed any more motivation, but the decision further pushed him to prove to the people who believed in him - a self-proclaimed "out-of-the-box" hire - and the fans he was someone they should support.
He has done that and then some.
The Battlehawks are 4-2, tied with the Seattle Sea Dragons and Houston Roughnecks for the second-best record in the XFL. Their only two losses have come against the undefeated D.C. Defenders.
But his success goes beyond the wins and the losses.
"AB's been unbelievable," St. Louis quarterback A.J. McCarron said earlier this season. "Our coaching staff's unbelievable. Just good dudes. Don't lose their mind and go psycho. They're all just cool, calm and collected. It sets the tone for everybody else so it's just been awesome."
Becht said he wanted to make sure to be a great communicator and good listener. He knows what it's like to play professional football and wants to use his experience to help others.
That's one reason the spring league concept appeals to him. There's a passion for learning among the players. They want to get better. They want to improve their chances of making the NFL. They want to know what they can do to keep playing as long as they can.
He said it's the "the purest form of coaching."
"He is exactly what a player needs," St. Louis tight end Jake Sutherland said. "He's not gonna lie to us. He tells us how it is. He sets high expectations for us, which is exactly what we want."
Sutherland said it didn't take long to realize Becht was the type of guy he wanted as his coach. Beyond the fact Becht can pass down the knowledge of how to make it in the NFL as a tight end, Sunderland said Becht has an infectious energy that lifts the team.
It's not just through big speeches or gestures. It's through small things, like his smile on the practice field.
One example of it happened Wednesday at practice. The offense was going through plays and practiced a "little outside zone" run. But it was more than that to Becht.
"I just looked over and I saw how excited he was about that and how much he loved that play," Sutherland said. "It was just like, man, that doesn't happen very often with head coaches."
The Battlehawks play in Houston against the Roughnecks at 2 p.m. EDT Sunday on ESPN.
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