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Jacksonville Jaguars
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The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team located in Jacksonville, Florida. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Jaguars, along with the Carolina Panthers, joined the NFL as expansion teams in 1995.
y year the city hosts the Gator Bowl, an annual civic highlight traditionally accompanied by parties, ceremonies, parades and other events leading up to the game.
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The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team located in Jacksonville, Florida. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Jaguars, along with the Carolina Panthers, joined the NFL as expansion teams in 1995.
Jacksonville football history
Every year the city hosts the Gator Bowl, an annual civic highlight traditionally accompanied by parties, ceremonies, parades and other events leading up to the game. The annual Florida-Georgia game is also played in Jacksonville.
The Gator Bowl stadium was built out of steel trusses during the Great Depression and was frequently built onto, with the final addition of the reinforced-concrete west upper deck coming in 1982. The stadium hosted short-lived teams in both the World Football League (Jacksonville Sharks/Express) and the United States Football League (Jacksonville Bulls) and the occasional NFL exhibition game. The city also hosted the American Football League All Star Game in 1967 and 1968. The city briefly attempted to lure the Baltimore Colts, whose owner Robert Irsay famously landed a helicopter in the stadium as thousands of Jacksonville citizens urged him to move the team there. City leaders also attempted to get the Houston Oilers to move to Jacksonville at one point in the late 1980s. Great efforts were made to lure the Oilers, including the creation of a "Jacksonville Oilers" banner and designation of a specific section of the Gator Bowl as a non-alcohol, family section for proposed home games.
1991–1994
In 1992, the NFL announced that it would add two new teams, originally in time for the 1993 season. The league had not expanded since the 1976 season with the addition of Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers; with the sport growing the NFL felt the time was right to add additional franchises. Five cities were ultimately chosen as finalists for the two new teams: Charlotte, North Carolina; St. Louis, Missouri; Baltimore, Maryland; Memphis, Tennessee; and Jacksonville. From the beginning, Charlotte and St. Louis were considered the heavy favorites, with Baltimore also a strong possibility. Though not as strong a bid, Memphis was still considered an outside possibility, as the NFL did not have a presence in the area.
For many reasons, Jacksonville was considered the darkest horse in the field. Florida already had two NFL teams: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who played about a four-hour ride away, and the Miami Dolphins. Any expansion team would also have to compete not only with Florida's three major college football teams—Florida State, Florida and Miami- but also the Georgia Bulldogs, who have a fairly large fan base in the Jacksonville area due to Jacksonville's close proximity to the Georgia state line. Also, Jacksonville was the smallest television market in the running; it was the only one not ranked in the top 50 Nielsen markets.
However, the biggest potential obstacle for the Jacksonville bid was nonstop turmoil and conflict surrounding the potential ownership group. It had formed even before the NFL announced its intentions to expand, in 1989. The group called itself Touchdown Jacksonville! and placed its formal application with the NFL in 1991. The original ownership group included future Governor Jeb Bush and Jacksonville developer and political kingmaker Tom Petway. In 1991 this group confidently announced that it would call its team the Jacksonville Jaguars. After some defections and mutinies, the group came to be led by J. Wayne Weaver, shoe magnate and founder of Nine West.
From the time Touchdown Jacksonville! came to being, it faced several challenges. In April 1993, the NFL indicated to Jacksonville officials that additional renovations to the Gator Bowl would be needed. After several weeks of negotiations, and at least one breakdown, an agreement was reached that capped the city's liability for construction and was sent to the City Council for approval. However, on July 21 1993, the Council failed to approve the financing package, dooming the bid. Deposits on season tickets were refunded, and Touchdown Jacksonville!'s offices were shuttered.
Largely due to being underwhelmed by the remaining suitors, the NFL and others encouraged Jacksonville interests to revisit the issue and resurrect their bid. About a month later negotiations between the city and Touchdown Jacksonville! resumed, and a slightly revised aid package was approved by a solid majority of the City Council. Officially back in the race, Jacksonville officials were energized, indicated by a drive to sell club seats that resulted in over 10,000 seats being sold in 10 days. The Jaguars also gained a high-profile investor when former NFL star player Deron Cherry signed on as a limited partner.
After Charlotte was unanimously granted the 29th franchise on November 1, the NFL announced they would name the 30th franchise on or before November 30 1993. By this time, conventional wisdom was that St. Louis would get the 30th franchise. In fact, T-shirts of the "St. Louis Stallions" (the proposed new team name) briefly went on sale at some St. Louis area sporting goods shops. However, it was not meant to be, as at 2:12 p.m. (EST) on the afternoon of November 30, Jacksonville was announced as the winning franchise. The next evening, 25,000 fans celebrated at the Gator Bowl as season ticket sales were kicked off. Within ten days, the Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville's daily newspaper) announced sales had passed the 55,000 seat mark (Incidentally, St. Louis received the Los Angeles Rams in 1995, Baltimore got the Cleveland Browns in 1996, and Tennessee would gain the relocated Houston Oilers in 1997).
After the Gator Bowl game on December 31 1993, the old stadium was essentially demolished and replaced with a reinforced concrete superstructure; all that remained of the old stadium was the West upper deck and a portion of the ramping system. The new Jacksonville Municipal Stadium (known as Alltel Stadium from 1997–2007) opened on August 18 1995 with a preseason game against the St. Louis Rams (For 1994 and 1995, Georgia and Florida alternated home games in their series, resuming the neutral-site matchups in Jacksonville in 1996).
1995–1999
In 1995, along with the Carolina Panthers, the Jacksonville Jaguars entered the NFL as the first expansion teams in almost 20 years. Both teams participated in the 1995 NFL Expansion Draft, with the Jaguars taking Steve Beuerlein, who quickly lost his starting job to Mark Brunell, with the first pick. The Jaguars finished their inaugural season with a record of 4–12. Both the Jaguars and the Panthers (7–9) broke the record for most wins by an expansion team (3) set by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1968. During this inaugural season many of the players who would lead Jacksonville to early successes began establishing themselves, including quarterback Mark Brunell (acquired in a draft day trade from Green Bay), offensive lineman Tony Boselli (drafted with the 2nd pick overall in the 1995 NFL Draft) running back James Stewart (also drafted in 1995), and wide receiver Jimmy Smith (signed as a free agent).
Jacksonville's 1996 season was a marked success. They won six of their last seven games of the season and finished with a record of 9–7. In doing so, they clinched the 5th seed in the AFC playoffs after winning a tiebreaker with the 9–7 Indianapolis Colts. Their first playoff game would be against the Buffalo Bills at Buffalo, a game that the Jaguars would win 30-27. Their next game would be against the Denver Broncos, top seed in the AFC, and a team that, with a 13–3 record, had dominated the AFC. Yet the Jaguars, not intimidated by the Broncos or their fans, largely dominated from the second quarter on, with a late Mark Brunell to Jimmy Smith touchdown giving the Jags a 30–20 lead late on. They would hold on to win in a huge upset, 30–27, in a game that many people still consider the franchise's finest hour. Upon their return home, the Jags were greeted by an estimated 40,000 fans at the stadium. Many of these fans had watched the game on the stadium JumboTron displays and had stayed into the early hours of the morning when the team arrived. In the AFC Championship Game, the Jaguars would acquit themselves very well, playing a tight and close defensive game in a hostile environment for over three quarters before finally losing, 20-6 to the New England Patriots on the road. On an interesting sidenote, their fellow second-year NFC expansion team, the Carolina Panthers, also got to their conference championship, where they lost 30-13 to the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers. In that year, Super Bowl XXXI almost became an all-expansion team Super Bowl.
In the franchise's third year (1997), the Jaguars had an 11-5 record and got into the playoffs for the second year in a row as a Wild Card Team. However, this return was short-lived as the Denver Broncos (whom the Jags took down last time in the post-season) trampled the Jaguars at Mile High Stadium 42-17, with 5 of their 6 touchdowns coming on run plays.
In December 1998, the Jaguars won the AFC Central Division and became the first NFL expansion team to make the playoffs three times in its first four seasons of play. In the wild card round, the Jaguars won their very first playoff game at home, beating the New England Patriots 25–10. However. they would get booted out in the Divisional Round as the New York Jets would win at Giants Stadium 34–24.
The 1999 season was quite a success for the Jacksonville Jaguars as they compiled a record of 14-2, which was the best regular season record in the NFL that year; it remains the best season record in franchise history. In the January, 2000, AFC Divisional playoffs, the Jaguars flattened the Miami Dolphins 62–7 in what turned out to be Dan Marino and Jimmy Johnson's last NFL game. Jacksonville's 62 points and 55-point margin are the second most ever in NFL playoff history, and Fred Taylor's 90-yard run is the longest ever in an NFL playoff game. However, the Jaguars would be yet again denied in the AFC championship game - this time as the favorite at home - as they would be defeated by the Tennessee Titans 33–14 in a game that the Jaguars controlled for the first half, leading 14–10 at halftime, but then went on to allow 23 unanswered points in the 2nd half. The Jaguars would thus finish the 1999 season 15–3, with all three of their losses coming against the Titans (Not surprisingly, this was the only time in NFL history that a 3-loss team met all of its losses at the hands of only one team).
2000–2003
These were the most disappointing years for the new franchise, due primarily to salary cap problems. In the 2000 season, veteran quarterback Mark Brunell and young running back Fred Taylor led the squad through a painful 7–9 season. The only highlights of the 2000 season were two wins over their division rival, the Cleveland Browns. The next two seasons in Jacksonville had worse records of 6–10 through the 2001 and 2002 seasons. This was mainly due to salary cap problems, meaning the team could not afford to keep a lot of talent. Coach Coughlin admitted that the team actually had more talent in its first year (1995) when it only won 4 games. This would be the last season he would coach the team. In a very classy act, he took out a full page ad in the Florida Times Union thanking the city of Jacksonville for "eight great seasons". Though despised by some of the fans, he drafted great talent such as Tony Boselli, Tony Brackens, Fred Taylor, Donovan Darius, John Henderson, Marcus Stroud, and David Garrard.
In 2002, the NFL split up the two leagues into 4 divisions, sending the Jacksonville Jaguars to the AFC South. This would put them in the same division as Indianapolis, Tennessee, and Houston. In 2003, the Jaguars hired Jack Del Rio as a rookie head coach. Del Rio had played as a linebacker during the late 80s and early 90s before retiring. He was formerly the Carolina Panthers' defensive coordinator, where he brought the team's defense from 30th place to 2nd place. That same year, the Jaguars selected quarterback Byron Leftwich with the 7th pick of the 2003 NFL draft. The Jaguars had high hopes for their new quarterback in 2003. The team had many failures and heatbreaking moments, ending the 2003 season at 5–11 and missing the playoffs for the 4th season in a row. Despite no longer having serious salary cap problems, the rebuilding of the team was clearly going to take longer than expected.
2004–2005
The 2004 season, celebrated as the 10th season of the Jaguars franchise, resulted in a winning record of 9–7 with road victories against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field as well as the Indianapolis Colts at the RCA Dome. The Jaguars' defense was a strong suit, as it included two Pro Bowl players, defensive tackles Marcus Stroud and John Henderson. Byron Leftwich enjoyed a solid year in 2004, helped by strong performances from holdovers Fred Taylor and Jimmy Smith. Unfortunately, Taylor sustained a season-ending injury at the Packers game. The very next week saw the Jaguars fall to the Houston Texans, which would ultimately eliminate the Jaguars from the playoffs. This denied them an opportunity to play the Super Bowl at their home stadium.
The 2005 Jaguars hoped to challenge the Colts for the division title. However, due to their scintillating 13-0 start, including two victories against the Jaguars, the Colts were able to easily clinch the AFC South title. With a 12–4 record (second best finish in team history), the Jaguars easily qualified for one of the conference's two wild card playoff allocations. Among these 12 wins were a 23–20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on October 9, 2005 and a 23-17 overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on October 16, 2005. While the Jaguars managed to win key games in 2005, 9 of their final 10 games were played against opponents with losing records. Though these games were wins, key players Byron Leftwich, Mike Peterson, Akin Ayodele, Paul Spicer, and Rashean Mathis were hurt during this stretch. The Jaguars ended the season losing 28-3 to the two-time defending champion New England Patriots on January 7, 2006 in the AFC wild card playoff round.
2006
Jacksonville looked like a team on the rise coming off of their 12–4 season, and was considered a playoff contender entering the season. But injuries plagued the team. Reggie Hayward, Greg Jones, Donovin Darius, Byron Leftwich, and Mike Peterson all suffered season-ending injuries. Marcus Stroud, Matt Jones, Paul Spicer, and Fred Taylor also faced injuries during the season. The team started off 2–0, defeating the Dallas Cowboys earning the NFL's highest winning percentage on opening days at .750 with a record of 9–3), and shutting out the defending champs Pittsburgh Steelers. But the team lost its next two games, and suffered embarrassing losses to the Houston Texans over the course of the season (Surprisingly, Jacksonville has struggled against the Texans since Houston entered the league in 2002). They missed the playoffs with an 8–8 record, but there were some positives. Maurice Jones-Drew, the Jaguars' second round draft pick, was one of the most surprising rookie sensations. He averaged 5.7 yards a carry, the highest in the league, and tied for 3rd in the NFL with 16 touchdowns. This season was also the first year the team played without their standout wide receiver Jimmy Smith as he decided to retire. His production was missed for the next few years as the Jaguars struggled to find an adequate replacement.The Jaguars in 2006 have the interception leader Rashean Mathis.
2007
On April 28, 2007, the Jaguars used their first-round pick (21st overall) to select Florida safety Reggie Nelson, after passing on Notre Dame Quarterback Brady Quinn twice. The pick of Reggie Nelson filled a void as veteran free safety Deon Grant went to Seattle to play for the Seattle Seahawks, since Jacksonville was unwilling to match Seattle's contract offer. On June 15, 2007, the Jaguars released longtime strong safety Donovin Darius, who had seen diminished playing time in recent years due to mounting injuries. This was seen by many as a cost-cutting measure. On August 31, 2007, the Jaguars announced that long time back-up quarterback David Garrard would start for the team, ahead of former 1st round draft pick, Byron Leftwich who was released in the team's final roster cuts. Garrard led the Jaguars to an 11–5 record and the playoffs. On January 5, 2008, the Jaguars defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-29 to win their first playoff game in almost 8 years and their first road playoff win since 1997. It was also the first time in the 50+ year history of the Steelers that they had been beaten twice at home by the same team in the same season. However, in the Divisional round, the Jaguars fell to the as of then undefeated New England Patriots; the teams were tied at halftime, but the Patriots pulled ahead and won 31–20. The season showed that the team needed to work on improving its pass-rush and receiving corp.
2008
The Jaguars 2008 season was a test to see if the Jaguars were poised to return to the success of the previous season, a test they could not pass. In addition to returning starters, the Jaguars added veteran WR Jerry Porter to the line up. The team also acquired Florida native CB Drayton Florence via San Diego. In the draft, 5 picks were traded to move up and select two promising Defensive Ends, Quentin Groves of Auburn and Derrick Harvey of Florida. It was hoped that they would quickly improve the pressure on the opposing quarterback. With David Garrard at the helm and these new additions, expectations were higher than ever for the Jacksonville Jaguars to make a playoff run - Peter King even picked the Jaguars to appear in the Super Bowl. However, the Jaguars were at a disappointing start after going 4–9 overall after week 14 of the season. The Jaguars lost starting guards Vince Manuwai and Maurice Williams for the season within the first quarter of the opening game. This in turn lead to dropoff in the running game which had been the Jaguars' calling card. Their most disappointing loss of the season came when the Jaguars took on the Cincinnati Bengals who were 0-8 coming into the game. Though it was a hard-fought game, the Jaguars could not pull a comeback over the Bengals, losing 21-19. This gave the Bengals their first win of the season. Their most notable win was in Indianapolis, where the Jaguars, with 67 seconds remaining and trailing 21–20, drove to the Indianapolis 33 yard line behind QB David Garrard. The drive was capped off with a game winning 51-yard field goal by kicker Josh Scobee with only 4 seconds remaining. After defeating the Detroit Lions in week 10, the Jaguars won only one more game as they struggled to a 5-11 finish, their worst record since 2003 and only 1 win better then their inaugural season.
Logo and uniforms
The day after the NFL awarded the expansion team to Jacksonville, a triumphant and surprised Wayne Weaver held up the Jaguars' proposed silver helmet and teal jersey at the NFL owners' meeting in Chicago. The team's colors were revealed to be teal, gold, and silver with black accents. However, this jersey and helmet design stirred controversy. Both included the team's logo with a gold leaping jaguar. This caught the attention of Ford Motor Company, parent of the automaker Jaguar, in that the Jaguars' logo bore what they considered to be too much resemblance to the automaker's logo, which was also used as a hood ornament. Though no lawsuit was brought to trial, an amicable agreement was ultimately reached where Jaguar would be named the official car of the Jaguars, and the Jaguars would redesign their uniforms.
The new logo became a prominent snarling Jaguars head with a teal tongue, which Weaver said was his wife's touch. He also claimed that the teal tongue came from "feeding Panthers to our Jaguars"—an obvious jab at their expansion brethren. During the Jaguars' first ever preseason game, teal-colored candies were handed out to all the fans who attended, turning their tongues a teal color just like on the logo. Additionally, raspberry lollipops were handed out by the "Candy Man" in section 142 to also turn the home fans' tongues teal. The redesigned uniforms feature an all-black helmet, white pants, gold numbers and trim, and either teal or white jerseys. A prowling jaguar replaced the leaping jaguar on the sleeves. Minor modifications have been introduced since then, such as changing the font of the jersey numbers.
For most of its short history, the Jaguars did what many other NFL teams located in subtropical climates traditionally practice: wear their white jerseys at home during the first half of the season — forcing opponents to wear their dark ones under the sweltering autumns in Jacksonville. However in 2004, the Jaguars wore their colored uniforms at home for all home games. The Jaguars again wore their colored uniforms (all in teal) for all home games in 2008. In the preseason, the Jaguars wear teal at home since these games are played at night when there is very little advantage with the heat.
The team introduced an alternate black jersey in 2002. During that same year, the team also started to wear black pants, mostly with their white jerseys. With the introduction of the black pants, the team stopped wearing the white jersey/white pants combination on a full-time basis. The black pants originally including two teal stripes down each side, but were replaced in 2005 with solid black pants with the Jaguar logo on each hip. The stripes on the white pants were altered so that the center, thickest stripe was black, and its accents were teal.
The official Jaguars store features authentic and replica jerseys of notable current and historic Jaguar players like Tony Boselli, Fred Taylor and David Garrard. Head Coach Jack Del Rio also promotes his charities by selling a "Jacked-Up" t-shirt at the official store.
Season-by-season records
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|1995 || 4 || 12 || 0 || 5th AFC Central || --
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|1996 || 9 || 7 || 0 || 2nd AFC Central || Won Wild Card Playoffs (Bills) 30-27
Won Divisional Playoffs (Broncos) 30-27
Lost Conference Championship (Patriots) 20-6
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|1997 || 11 || 5 || 0 || 2nd AFC Central || Lost Wild Card Playoffs (Broncos) 42-17
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|1998 || 11 || 5 || 0 || 1st AFC Central || Won Wild Card Playoffs (Patriots) 25-10
Lost Divisional Playoffs (Jets) 34-24
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|1999 || 14 || 2 || 0 || 1st AFC Central || Won Divisional Playoffs (Dolphins) 62-7
Lost Conference Championship (Titans) 33-14
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|2000 || 7 || 9 || 0 || 4th AFC Central || --
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|2001 || 6 || 10 || 0 || 5th AFC Central || --
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|2002 || 6 || 10 || 0 || 3rd AFC South || --
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|2003 || 5 || 11 || 0 || 3rd AFC South || --
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|2004 || 9 || 7 || 0 || 2nd AFC South || --
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|2005 || 12 || 4 || 0 || 2nd AFC South || Lost Wild Card Playoffs (Patriots) 28-3
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|2006 || 8 || 8 || 0 || 3rd AFC South || --
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|2007 || 11 || 5 || 0 || 2nd AFC South || Won Wild Card Playoffs (Steelers) 31-29
Lost Divisional Playoffs (Patriots) 31-20
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|2008 || 5 || 11 || 0 || 4th AFC South || --
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!rowspan="3"|Totals || 118 || 106 || 0
|colspan="2"| (1995–2008, regular season)
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! 5 || 6 || -
|colspan="2"| (1995–2008, playoffs)
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! 123 || 112 || 0
|colspan="2"| (all games, 1995–2008, including playoffs)
Players of note
Current roster
Retired numbers
Although not officially retired, the number 71, as worn by Tony Boselli has not been worn since 2002. According to team officials the number has been "taken out of service."
Pride of the Jaguars
The Jaguars unveiled their own "Ring of Honor" during the 2006 season at the New York Jets game on October 8th, 2006. A contest was held in July 2006 to name their club's hall of fame and "Pride of the Jaguars" was chosen with 36% of the vote. Former left tackle Tony Boselli was inducted. Team owner Wayne Weaver said that Boselli will be the only one enshrined in 2006 but "others will follow later." Weaver also said that recently retired wide receiver Jimmy Smith would probably be the second player to be inducted.
Other notable alumni
All-time first-round draft picks
Coaches of note
Head coaches
Offensive Coordinators
Defensive Coordinators
Current staff
Work in the community
The Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation was established in 1995, when the franchise deal was first announced. Since then, the Foundation has given over $6 million to area efforts in community improvement. In recent years, there has been increasing emphasis on youth programs, such as Honor Rows and Fresh Futures. The Jaguars also have a program called Playbooks, which is designed to help stop illiteracy.
Radio and television
Since the first 1995 season, the Jaguars' flagship radio station has been WOKV.
Since 2007, WOKV simulcasts on both AM 690 and on 106.5 FM. Brian Sexton, Sports Director for WAWS-TV & WTEV-TV, and a past contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, is the play-by-play announcer, Jeff Lageman is the color analyst, and WOKV's Sports Director Cole Pepper serves as the pre-game and post-game show host with former Oakland Raider Pete Banaszak serving as post-game analyst. During preseason games, telecasts not seen nationwide are on WTEV channel 47, the CBS affiliate. Since 2007, the announcers were Paul Burmeister and former Jaguars Left Tackle Tony Boselli.
External links
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