[5] On July 20, 2017, the National Arena League announced it had conditionally approved a team from Richmond as members for the 2018 season[6] with the Roughriders confirming that they were finalizing their NAL expansion requirements.

[9] Jones immediately made the news by publicly offering the then-currently unemployed and controversial former NFL quarterbacks Colin Kaepernick and Johnny Manziel a position on the team.

[10] On January 26, 2018, the team announced the signing of controversial former NFL defensive lineman Greg Hardy.

After the Atlanta Havoc lost their final game of the season, also to the Doom, the Roughriders earned home field advantage for the playoffs.

Majority owner and general manager Gregg Fornario stated they were looking into venues in Hershey, Reading, and Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania, Norfolk in Virginia, and Atlantic City in New Jersey.

[14][15] On August 15, 2018, Roughriders' owner Gregg Fornario announced his intentions of creating a new league called Northern Arena Football (NAF).

[21] However, Fornario's plans to launch the new league fell through and the team rejoined the AAL for the 2019 season as part of a new Northern Division.

They defeated the Flight in the divisional playoff championship before facing the West Michigan Ironmen, the Midwest Division champion.

[24] The 2020 NAL was then cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and head coach Mook Zimmerman decided to retire in August 2020.

[27] By December 2020, Fornario signed an agreement to sell the franchise to HMG Sports,[28] the group that attempted to launch the Baltimore Lightning in the NAL for the 2021 season before having their membership terminated three weeks later for not providing a letter of credit and an arena lease.