JAGUARS FANS PLAN TO PROTEST IN CLOWN COSTUMES AT FINAL GAME ON SUNDAY
The Jacksonville Jaguars fired head coach Urban Meyer on the 16th of December 2021. Meyer’s time with the franchise was fraught with controversy and was encapsulated in a dismal 2-11 record. After his inevitable departure, many Jags fans and industry insiders believed that general manager Trent Baalke would be next out the door in short order. However Ian Rapoport reported last week that the Jaguars plan to retain the former 49ers GM for the 2022 season and that he’ll be directly involved in interviews for the new head coach.
This evoked anger from Jaguars fans and prompted them to start an online “clown” protest asking demanding a front-office change with the hashtag “FireBaalke” and “KhlownOut” trending on Twitter. Jaguars fans have changed their Twitter profiles to a clown with a mustache (in symbolic reference to owner Shahid Khan) and have been commenting clown emojis under every Jaguars communication on all of the organization’s media platforms.
The organization has attempted to turn off comments on live streams and hasn’t commented on the online protests. Seemingly the fuel they needed, Jags fans are planning to protest Sunday by attending the final game of the season against the Indianapolis Colts dressed in full clown costumes (red rubber noses, face paint, wigs and all), in a bid to get Khan to fire Trent Baalke.
News of the protests has spread rapidly through the internet and has led some people to look at this with skepticism questioning the probability of seeing clown costumes at the TIAA Stadium on Sunday. Former Green Bay Packers linebacker, and Pat McAfee Show’s co-host A.J Hawk questioned these protests saying, “How many (fans) do you really think are going to show up and do this? Like 300? Half the people commenting on Twitter aren’t going to go to the game either.” Fans without tickets have been looking to buy online and a few with extra tickets looking to sell or give away. A considerable number of clown costumes are expected in Jacksonville on Sunday with costume shops reporting sales of up to 5000 clown noses.
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence was asked by the media whether he had any conversations with Shahid Khan or the front-office this week (about where the organization is at) to which he said, “No.” Asked about his thoughts on the fans wearing clown costumes to the game, the 2020 number one overall pick said, “I understand. The fans have been Jacksonville fans for a long time. I’m sure it hasn’t been easy. There’s a lot of diehard fans that this is something that’s very important to them and they’ve been a fan since the Jags started. You see that passion and you definitely respect that. Would I do that personally? No, I wouldn’t do it, but fans feel how they feel. It’s hard after this year…I get the frustration.”
Interim head coach Darrell Bevell commented on the clown protests saying, “I do understand the frustration they have. There’s a level of frustration here within the building, the players are frustrated, we’re frustrated with what’s going on, and we want it to be better as well.”
The Jaguars have had a disappointing season, to say the least. They’ve only won twice with their first victory of the season coming in a 23-20 win in week 6 against the Miami Dolphins in London and their second a bizarre 9-6 win over the Buffalo Bills in week 8. The rest of their showings have been painful to watch with their most recent outing, a 50-10 loss in Foxborough last Sunday, adding a punctuation mark to their string of poor performances.
The Jags haven’t had a ton of success since billionaire Shahid Khan took over the franchise on the 4th of January in 2012. In his tenure, the Jaguars have a 41-119 record compared to the 138-124 record before Khan. The Jaguars have a putrid .256 winning percentage since 2012 which is last in the NFL, have only one winning season since, only one playoff appearance, and have finished last in their division 6 times which is the most during that period.
Jaguars fans were confused and even enraged by the news that the organization was retaining Baalke. Trent Baalke doesn’t have a strong reputation in coaching circles, and has a career 17-51 record as general manager since 2012. The 1-15 2020 Jacksonville Jaguars went 0-5 after he took over from David Caldwell. It’s been reported that he often appears to be in a power struggle and has been accused of lacking communication skills.
His spotty personnel record in recent years is a problem and according to Pro Football Network, Trent Baalke is limiting the pool of candidates open to the Jaguars with several prospective coaches not wanting to go to Jacksonville if Baalke remains GM. According to CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora, Baalke has also been pushing current Alabama offensive coordinator and former Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien as a potential candidate which has worried fans as O’Brien’s tenure in Houston ended with a dud and involved some questionable trade decisions.
The fans also prefer that Khan hire an executive vice president of football operations whose function, among many others, will be to conduct interviews for both the general manager and head coach positions, and form relationships within the league as many view Khan as an outsider of sorts in football circles. The Jacksonville Jaguars have not had an executive VP of football operations since they fired former Giants head coach Tom Coughlin in December of 2019.
With a trip to the postseason on the line when the Colts visit the Jaguars, most people will be tuning in with the hope of seeing perhaps the biggest troll job by fans in recent NFL history.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero