![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1191285596.jpg\")
San Francisco 49ers’ Ahmed Plummer, left, breaks up a pass in the end zone intended for the New York Jets’ Anthony Becht, right, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Oct. 1, 2001. (Henny Ray Abrams\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\nOrlando\u2019s new UFL team, the Orlando Storm, announced Tuesday morning that former St. Louis Battlehawks coach Anthony Becht will be its first head coach.<\/p>\n
Becht, who enjoyed an 11-year career as a tight end in the NFL, served as the Battlehawks\u2019 coach for the past three seasons (2023-25). The announcement was made by UFL president and CEO Russ Brandon.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we head into a new era, we needed someone who had the expertise to build a new franchise like the Orlando Storm from the ground up, and what better person to do that than Anthony Becht,\u201d Brandon said in a news release. \u201cUFL co-owner Mike Repole and I have called on Anthony to take up this challenge to help ensure the long-term success of the league. We guarantee that his successor in St. Louis will carry on the winning tradition that he established on and off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becht, who is a Florida resident, guided the Battlehawks to a 22-8 record over those three seasons, with back-to-back playoff appearances in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, I am filled with mixed emotions as I leave a city and a team that I love \u2014 the St. Louis Battlehawks \u2014 to take on the exciting challenge of building a new team \u2014 the Orlando Storm \u2014 in my home state, where I played for three seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,\u201d said Becht. \u201cI look forward to the task that faces me and adding to the great tradition of football in the Sunshine State. I want to thank the Battlehawks faithful for all of their support. You will forever be in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becht played at West Virginia, and he is a member of the Mountaineers\u2019 Hall of Fame. He was selected in the first round (27th overall) of the 2000 NFL Draft by the New York Jets. He went on to play for the Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, St. Louis Rams, Arizona Cardinals and Kansas City Chiefs. From 2000 to 2010, the former tight end played in 152 consecutive games \u2014 the third-longest streak in the NFL over that time period behind only Brett Favre and Peyton Manning.<\/p>\n
San Francisco 49ers’ Ahmed Plummer, left, breaks up a pass in the end zone intended for the New York Jets’ Anthony Becht, right, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Oct. 1, 2001. (Henny Ray Abrams\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Following his playing career, Becht worked as a college football analyst for ESPN and hosted the Jets\u2019 pregame show before being promoted to their radio color analyst in 2024. He also coached tight ends in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl before accepting the same position with the San Diego Fleet of the Alliance of American Football in 2018.<\/p>\n
The league will announce Becht\u2019s successor in St. Louis in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando\u2019s new UFL team, the Orlando Storm, announced Tuesday morning that former St. Louis Battlehawks coach Anthony Becht…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,1335,139,141,140,109,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-93760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-orange-county","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-news","13":"tag-social","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}