Birmingham Stallions linebacker Scooby Wright appeared to indicate that he’s through with football. Birmingham coach Skip Holtz isn’t giving up on another season with the “SharkDawg” on the field, but he’ll have to carry on in 2024 without one of the Stallions’ heart-and-soul players.

A neck injury has sent Wright to injured reserve, and he had a since-deleted social-media post that featured cleats hanging from the crossbar of the goalposts.

Holtz said he isn’t taking the cleats as the final word on Wright’s football career.

“I know that he hung the cleats over the goal post, which I think was just iconic, which I absolutely loved,” Holtz said. “While we’re out at practice, you’re looking up at those cleats hanging there on the goal posts every day. It was so Scooby. He’s got such personality.

“I know on Twitter, I guess, he has made some statements. But from our standpoint, he’s still on IR. I’m still going to try to get him back next year. He’s going to have to tell me that he’s retired to not bring him back here next year. I think Scooby meant so much to the culture of this team and the way we built it from Day 1. His personality, his hard work, his talent, his ability, he was just a passionate player that was fun to be around.”

Wright has been with the Stallions throughout the USFL revival, and Birmingham won the league championship in both seasons before the merger of the USFL and XFL formed the United Football League for 2024.

In the Stallions’ 33-30 victory over the Philadelphia Stars in the USFL Championship Game on July 3, 2022, Wright returned an interception 46 yards for a touchdown to give Birmingham a 33-23 lead with 2:53 to play.

This season, the Stallions have a 5-0 record halfway through the United Football League’s regular season, and linebacker Kyahva Tezino is the team’s top tackler.

In 2023, Tezino finished second in the USFL with 94 tackles and nine tackles for loss.

Tezino compiled those stats for the Pittsburgh Maulers, one of the teams that didn’t survive the USFL/XFL merger, and Birmingham acquired the linebacker during the USFL dispersal draft.

“With the merger of the two leagues and how some teams disbanded, it put some really good football players into the draft pool we were able to go through in December and January,” Holtz said. “One of those things that we started looking at was how do we strengthen our linebacker room, and that was where, all of a sudden, Tezino was available to be able to get him into our program. Obviously, he was one of the leading tacklers in the league a year ago. We played against him.

“He’s a great player. He’s a competitor. He’s a leader. He’s physical. He’s tough. He can run. He’s got a great nose for the ball. I can’t say enough positive things about him.”

The Stallions play the Memphis Showboats at 11 a.m. CDT Saturday at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis. ABC will televise the game.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.