“I have a saying I say all the time,” Bob Stoops says in December inside his new office at Globe Life Park, half a hallway removed from the old baseball clubhouse still bearing murals of the Texas Rangers on the walls despite being jammed with rows of lockers to accommodate dozens of football players. Within weeks, that room and almost everything in the former baseball ballpark will be updated to reflect the building’s new role as the home of the XFL’s Dallas Renegades, which hired Stoops as head coach and general manager a year ago. Fittingly, his mantra is about change.



“People don’t change. They just get older,” he says. “How many guys you know? Buddies?” – he pauses to let his words hang in the air, awaiting a rebuttal that ultimately doesn’t arrive. Satisfied, he reiterates his point: “They don’t change. They just get older.”



Those who know Stoops believe that saying holds true...