AJ McCarron, ex-college football star QB, sets XFL record during incredible performance

A.J. McCarron’s NFL career didn’t exactly take off like a rocket but he’s already making waves as he finishes up his first season with the St. Louis BattleHawks of the XFL.

McCarron was 28-of-35 passing in the BattleHawks’ 53-28 win over the Orlando Guardians with 420 passing yards and six touchdown passes. His six touchdown passes put him in the upper echelon of XFL history. He has 24 touchdown passes this season, setting the record for most in a single season in a league. He broke Tommy Maddox’s record set in 2001 for the LA Xtreme.

The win improved St. Louis to 7-3 on the season as Orlando dropped to 1-9. Going into Sunday, the BattleHawks were fighting for a playoff spot. The D.C. Defenders clinched a spot and the North Division regular-season championship with a 9-1 record.

McCarron won a national championship with Alabama three times before he was a fifth-round selection of the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2014 NFL Draft. However, he never did enough to maintain a starting job for any NFL team. He was with Cincinnati for four seasons.

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McCarron made his way to the Buffalo Bills, the then-Oakland Raiders, Houston Texans and Atlanta Falcons before he joined the XFL prior to the start of the newly rebooted season.

He went viral earlier in the season for sharing the reasons why he decided to play in the XFL for a considerably smaller salary.

“My 6-year-old loves watching tape of me on YouTube. That’s a big reason I chose to return this way,” McCarron said, via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“I probably could’ve tried to come back with an NFL team and had a chance to probably make bigger money, but no one knows what the future holds. I’m enjoying this, and it’s a great way to create some memories for me and my boys.”