The
Alliance of American Football announced the awarding of the third inaugural league team, Alliance Memphis, on May 4, 2018. This announcement was followed by the May 10, 2018, announcement of
Mike Singletary as the team's head coach. On July 30, 2018, the Alliance announced team Memphis had signed its first 29 players. On September 20, the league announced four eastern inaugural franchises' names and logos including Memphis as the Memphis Express. The name is derived from Memphis' significance as a mail and cargo transport city being the "World Headquarters" of
FedEx (formerly Federal Express), with an airplane being featured in the logo. (FedEx CEO
Frederick W. Smith had previously owned the
Memphis Mad Dogs pro football team in the 1990s; as the AAF was a single-entity league that never progressed to selling individual franchises as originally planned, Smith had no involvement or investment with the Express, despite the use of the Express name and imagery.) On January 5, 2019, training camp opened in
San Antonio, Texas. The final 52-man roster was released on January 30. The Express' inaugural game, played against the
Birmingham Iron at
Legion Field on February 10, ended in a 26–0 shutout loss. Their first home game was a 20–18 loss against the
Arizona Hotshots during week 2. Memphis notched their first win on March 2, with a 26–23 victory over the
San Diego Fleet at
Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. On April 2, 2019, the league's football operations were suspended, == Final roster ==