Jaguars fans are a special breed and a much-needed part of the NFL ecosystem. They perfectly blend the morose nature of Jets fans, the ennui of Browns fans, and the white-hot anger of Raiders fans. Now their ire is being directed at the team and things are getting bad.
The Jaguars owner’s son asked fans to be patient and everything went to hell
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
On Tuesday Tony Khan, son of Jaguars owner Shad Khan and Vice President of Technology and Analytics, was deeply upset he was called a nerd and much worse.
The slur is disgusting and has absolutely no place in any civil conversation.
This is the demarcation of JagsTwitter’s anger. A crossing of the Rubicon. Until this moment there were clearly marked battle lines and rules of engagement for Jags Twitter.
- Do not engage.
- They can call the Jaguars trash, but you can NEVER say the Jaguars are bad.
- It’s the Jaguars against the world, always.
- The team and owners are cool. Everyone else is trash.
- Do not engage.
Getting into beef with Tony Khan is a shift, and marks just how fed up Jaguars fans are after ANOTHER disappointing start to the season.
JagsTwitter is the lovable dog you found on the road that is definitely rabid but you keep it anyway because it’s so great. Just when you think it’s snapped at you one too many times you find it howling “DUVAAAAAL” at the moon and chugging a bottle of fireball and can’t help but let it back in.
In order to try and right the ship, Tony Khan went to the Jaguars subreddit to deliver a manifesto of sorts. I’ll spare sharing the whole thing, but here are some highlights.
“I just wish that everyone would put themselves in the shoes of the people that are working really hard and want to win games every bit as badly as you do.”
“please, before you go on a daily attack spree and belittle people repeatedly that are working really hard and are so frustrated with the results that they’re getting back from their hard work, just please ask yourself if pressing that button and firing off that message to someone about what a pathetic loser they are is really going to make you feel so much better about the investments of time and money that you’ve made as a fan that it would justify crushing the spirits of someone who shares your common goals and dreams for the franchise when they are doing a lot of hard work and soul-searching trying to find the right answers.”
“I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’ll ask anyway: please, would you consider trying to be more positive for the rest of the season?”
Khan’s plea was received about as well as you’d expect.
The Jaguars should have seen this coming. If you sell fans on a vision of the future, tell them everything is going to be better, make them buy in, well, you better deliver.
It was probably a little naive to ask for more positivity about the team’s 2-4 start. Fans have every right to express their disappointment. However, attacking someone personally for making the effort to reach out directly to fans is a line that shouldn’t be crossed.
