FOLIO
Words by Kaleb Stowell Photo by Sam Kaplan
In a city that is more familiar with cheering for a high draft pick than hopes at a post-season, the Jacksonville Jaguars continue to maintain a positive image in the hearts and minds of fans in the area. Year in and year out, Jaguars fans have been subject to roster changes, coaching staff alterations and most recently, a new general manager. No matter what decisions the team chooses to make, Jaguars fans follow with seemingly blind loyalty, even if their devotion leads them to another disappointing season with no playoff appearance.
In order to better understand why Jacksonville natives are so supportive of the Jaguars, we first need to examine fan psychology as a whole. Curt Lox, a sports psychology professor at the University of North Florida, posited that the Jaguars are so much more to the city of Jacksonville than a football team. “When we’re connected to these games and they’re on TV they talk about Jacksonville, show videos of Jacksonville, the pier and the beach and we take pride in that sort of thing,” Lox said.
Lox also stated he believes one of the greatest things about the Jacksonville Jaguars is the sense of community it creates among Jacksonville residents. “The team’s really become woven into the fabrics of our lives… It’s an easy subject to get excited about and talk about with people you may not have a lot in common with or interact with,” said Lox, “You can walk past a stranger on the street you barely know at all and as long as they have a Jags shirt on then BOOM –– you have a connection.”
It’s this sense of community that ultimately ties the city of Jacksonville so closely to the city’s beloved football team. The black and teal color theme and the “DUUUVAL” chant have become synonymous with residents and fans alike, and the city has embraced it as its identity. Jaguars season ticket holder Carson Stewart said, “Just being in the city and seeing the team colors and hearing the chant, it’s such an awesome experience. It brings such a great sense of community and closeness, even when we might not have anything in common outside of that. It just helps make everything feel connected. We’re all in it together.” Stewart, who has been a Jaguars fan his entire life, claims that even through the toughest of times, he continues to support the team wholeheartedly. “Even when they make decisions I find questionable I can’t bring myself to have an issue with it. I mean, that’s our team, and it’s my job as a fan to support them, at least in my opinion,” he said.
It’s this scenario that Stewart describes that many Jaguars fans find themselves in, according to Lox. “Becoming attached to a sports team is no different than becoming attached to anything else. When you invest money, time, emotions, whatever it may be into anything, it becomes hard to turn off that thing,” he said. It is this part of the psychology of a sports fan that creates these enigmatic fan bases such as the Jaguars’. Die-hard fans of teams that have had no real historical success or promise. “We have short memories of the bad years, and we fondly remember the good years,” Lox added. However, it’s because these fans continue to come out and support their team week after week that the city of Jacksonville even gets the chance to root for their hometown team on the national stage.
These positive feelings toward the Jaguars aren’t shared by the whole city, however, with some saying that the team should be relocated elsewhere, and others saying that the city puts too much money into a sports team that hasn’t won anything. Michael Epperley, a lifelong Jacksonville resident, is among those who don’t share this fondness of the Jaguars. “I’ve lived in this city my whole life and for the life of me I can’t remember a single time that I’ve wanted to root for the Jaguars,” Epperley said. “I mean it was nice in 2017 when we almost went to the Super Bowl, but other than that I just don’t think the team gives enough of a reason to justify how much money we invest into it as a city.” Epperley isn’t alone, there are plenty of Jacksonville residents who are unhappy that some of their taxpayer dollars are going to a football team they don’t care about.
Lox doesn’t share these opinions. He claims that what the current Jaguars owner, Shad Khan, is doing with the team and the city of Jacksonville is something people will look back on in 20 years and be a lot more understanding than they are now. “If you look around Florida… you have Miami, Tampa, and now Orlando, what’s the next likely place that’s gonna get built up? It will probably be Jacksonville,” he said.
The Jaguars won’t be going anywhere for a while, if ever. With the approval of plans for a new stadium, the team is set to remain in Jacksonville for the next 30 years at least, giving fans and staff alike hopes of escaping this constant irrelevancy the Jaguars have existed in and bringing the city its first professional sports title ever.
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