Quote:The changing technology is what can make Jacksonville's grasp on this franchise tenuous in the minds of many.
Prior to cable television, the internet, and NFL Sunday ticket, pretty much the only way you could keep up with your team was through the newspaper or various team publications. If you moved to another NFL town (especially one with an NFL team not aligned with your team's rival's), it would be easier to simply follow the local team. Had Jacksonville gotten an expansion team when Tampa did, a lot of the transplants that moved here might have evolved into Jaguars fans due to that same dynamic-assuming of course the Jaguars product was palatable enough to attract fans.
However, with the advent and proliferation of the various technologies listed above, it's much easier to follow a team outside of the local market than it ever was before. Now, watching a winning team or learning about its players and history are a change of the channel or click of a mouse away. That can work for you if you are a winning team, but against you if you are a team like the Jaguars in a small market as is.
People like to be associated with winners. The teams with the biggest nationwide fan bases are typically the most successful ones. That's no coincidence.
When the Jaguars lose, they lose fans. I'm not just talking about the once loyal STHs disgruntled by the team's failures. I'm talking about the youth who are forming their football identities. I'm talking about those kids who are deciding with which teams their allegiance will reside.
When Malik Jackson observes the large numbers of Raiders fans in attendance at the game, it exemplifies what I have explained above. The Raiders are some 35 years older than the Jaguars. Even despite their decade or so of down in the dumps play prior to this year, they still remain among the most storied and successful NFL franchises around. Most of their success happened prior to the advent of most of those technologies I mentioned above, and were sustained for a long period of time. They had generations of fans before we were even born, and they had kids who they raised to be Raiders fans.
Our fans have not had the luxury of supporting a super successful team. We don't have old highlights of our games narrated by John Facenda. We don't have the big gaudy rings and shiny Super Bowl trophies. We don't multiple players in Canton. We don't have any of those things. Without the Super Bowl wins to draw fans early on, with the prolonged losing (and really BAD losing of late), there is nothing to retain the enthusiasm or loyalty of current fans, and little to nothing to earn the loyalty of the kids coming up now. They don't want to be teased because of their team. It isn't just kids, either. How many of us wear our Jaguars stuff in public only to hear some unsolicited smart [BAD WORD REMOVED] remark about how bad the team is? Those attacks are a form of tax on our allegiance. Instead of dealing with this crap, kids would rather be Patriots, Steelers, Packers and Raiders fans.
I don't know if Jackson and the other players realize how this dynamic works.
I get what you are saying and I do agree. I remember when I used to be able to watch just a couple of NFL games live every weekend (before cable TV). Growing up in a non-NFL city I had several different "favorite" teams and never really had any allegiance to any particular team. For me it was more about players and the games. When the Navy brought me here to Jacksonville in 1989 I was a "Miami Dolphins fan" mainly because I was a Dan Marino fan (along with a few others). I guess you could say that I was/am simply a fan of the game.
When it was announced that Jacksonville was awarded the expansion team, I was on-board all the way and have been a die-hard Jaguars fan ever since.
My point though is that today's technology has changed the way fans look at the game. Heck you have websites like Alfie's that are simply made up of stuff put out on Twitter. Even watching the NFL programming on TV many times has the hosts looking at Twitter for the latest news or fan commentary. The down side is that during an actual interview, a player might say something and some "fan" will take a small quote completely out of context and twit it. The next thing you know it filters it's way on to message boards like this and so on.
With some of the "news" put out on social media, you would think that things are worse off for the team now than it really is.
Quote:This team is so bad that any of my Jaguars coffee mugs/cups have to stay at home. There is no way I can bring one of those to work and have people laugh at me because of the joke our franchise is right now. And for any Jaguars shirts, I'm barely bold enough to cut grass in them lol.
You are the perfect example of a [BLEEP] fan. Can't handle people laughing at you for being a fan of a struggling team? You probably need a "safe space".
Quote:This team is so bad that any of my Jaguars coffee mugs/cups have to stay at home. There is no way I can bring one of those to work and have people laugh at me because of the joke our franchise is right now. And for any Jaguars shirts, I'm barely bold enough to cut grass in them lol.
As jovial as your post sounds, I completely believe this.
I don't think the players understand this at all.
Quote:And for any Jaguars shirts, I'm barely bold enough to cut grass in them lol.
They work very well for wiping the wax off of your vehicle.
Quote:You are the perfect example of a [BAD WORD REMOVED] fan. Can't handle people laughing at you for being a fan of a struggling team? You probably need a "safe space".
I get where you are coming from, but his post and yours speak to what I was referring when I mention the virtual tax on our allegiance.
A kid deciding whether to be a Jaguars fan or not will often weigh that sort of thing into consideration.
Even though I remain a Jaguars fan through and through, I don't think anyone likes the derision that accompanies showing love for this team.
jagi...you're completely wrong...the Jags are bad, very bad right now and have been for a while. Do people know I'm a Jags fan, of course...but I'm not proud enough of them to represent. There's nothing to be proud of right now. While not better, I can rep with my FSU gear until the Jags (or Braves) get better.
Quote:jagi...you're completely wrong...the Jags are bad, very bad right now and have been for a while. Do people know I'm a Jags fan, of course...but I'm not proud enough of them to represent. There's nothing to be proud of right now. While not better, I can rep with my FSU gear until the Jags (or Braves) get better.
You're still a [BLEEP].
My truck has a Jaguars plate on the front. Every Friday at work we usually wear "Hawaiian" shirts, and I have one that is a Jaguars shirt that I wear every Friday. I have a Jaguars coffee cup that I use every day. I work with a bunch of people that don't really follow or watch the Jaguars, but follow the Gaytors or the Bulldogs or the Seminoles. I take [BLEEP] every Monday morning whether it's a win or a loss. It doesn't really matter that much to me. Life goes on and we do our jobs.
In terms of this "embarrassed to rep" narrative:
I travel 120-130 days a year. I wear my Jags gear on flights and out and about in whichever state or country I'm visiting. I get some grief here and there, I get some respect for being loyal through the tough times from folks as well. Whatever. I've never really had a second thought about "repping." That just seems silly.
I wear Jaguars shirts quite often every week. Despite what has transpired as of late, I will still wear them because I am a fan of the Jaguars. I grew up with them and still have the 1993 leaping jaguar shirt. It's almost become a part of me. I just have to wear the logo anywhere I go.
Yea it's the fan's fault the team stinks horribly and has for almost a decade. They keep at it and there will be about 10 fans at the game. It's a shame that this franchise used to give me so much excitement during football season even during the tough years. Now its just becoming a big headache and ruining the NFL experience for me. All this team has is its loyal and local base to support it. Why jeopardize that relationship? Bums.
I have been married 20 years. I won't dump my wife or my team. Loyalty it has to be passed on. I tell my kids your team is your team and winning feels better when you have the bitterness of loss. Life isn't a straighline it is a curve with ups and downs.
Quote:Would you regret that you boo'd and wrote negative remarks if the Jaguars organization decided to move because they wanted more supportive fans? All we have is a empty stadium in jax, forced to become fans of another team.
I wouldn't because the fans in Jacksonville are generally much more supportive of their team than average. I wouldn't want to see them move but could understand if it came down to numbers in terms of general revenue, but they'd be nuts to move due to lack of support.
if gus does not improve. I am sure Khan will open his check books to a future coach who will right the ship. He will not allow to stay the laughing stock. And will right the ship in the off season. And is probably doing due diligence to see who is available and who could make the Jaguars the hottest ticket in the league.
I do not believe our next coach would end up someone recently fired. At that point. And would be a coach who knows what it takes to win in the nfl level. And not old man tom.
Quote:if gus does not improve. I am sure Khan will open his check books to a future coach who will right the ship. He will not allow to stay the laughing stock. And will right the ship in the off season. And is probably doing due diligence to see who is available and who could make the Jaguars the hottest ticket in the league.
I do not believe our next coach would end up someone recently fired. At that point. And would be a coach who knows what it takes to win in the nfl level. And not old man tom.
Are you sure? This franchise worries me, and I honestly expect the opposite of "good" decisions from them, hell maybe they retain Bradley 1 more year. lol How irate/confused would us fans be? Gus is 14-41, about to likely be 15-49 at seasons end, 3-13 Here we come! Honestly this guy should have been fired at the end of last year, not given 1 year of free money after he is fired after this season. There is and never was any marginal improvement from Gus, and I still get pretty upset when I think he is our head coach. It should have been clear after last season he was not the guy.
Quote:Are you sure? This franchise worries me, and I honestly expect the opposite of "good" decisions from them, hell maybe they retain Bradley 1 more year. lol How irate/confused would us fans be? Gus is 14-41, about to likely be 15-49 at seasons end, 3-13 Here we come! Honestly this guy should have been fired at the end of last year, not given 1 year of free money after he is fired after this season. There is and never was any marginal improvement from Gus, and I still get pretty upset when I think he is our head coach. It should have been clear after last season he was not the guy.
I think what saved Bradley last year was the perceived jump in play from the offense even though it was mostly inflated due to being down thanks to a terrible defense and lack of running game. Caldwell had a hand in why Bradley retained his job after last season. Remember he was the one who publicly came out and essentially said that 2013 - 2014 were mulligans. He spent an entire off-season addressing the personnel on defense and Bradley threw Babich under the bus during the off-season and hired Wash on board to call it this year. So far we're not any better. This is the same team we've seen every year. Without a shadow of doubt though he'll be out of job going into 2017 here unless this team just goes on some kind of crazy 1996 Jaguar's winning streak. Which I doubt will happen. But after all the fan backlash this year in the social media realm and all of the terrible showings on national television (virtually made into a joke in the mainstream outlet after that tack loss). Khan has no choice but to fire him.