Join jaguars.com Senior Editor Vic Ketchman as he tackles the fans' tough questions.
Chris from Arroyo Grande, CA:
When the kicking team tries to down a punt by touching it, is the return team now allowed to try and advance the ball without any fear of losing the ball? Even a fumble?
Vic: If the kicking team is first to touch the ball, the return team may advance the ball without risk of fumble. I saw it happen for the first time in a Pitt-West Virginia game I was covering way back in the '80's. I didn't know the rule until a defensive back named Tom Flynn, who later played for the Packers and Giants, made a mad dash for a punt after West Virginia had touched it. Flynn went for a scoop and run amidst a crowd of defenders and I was aghast at his daring, but I soon found out that what he was attempting was at no risk at all and he taught me a lesson I've never forgotten. Once the ball has been touched by a member of the kicking team, every return man should attempt a scoop and run.
Howard from Homestead, FL:
Does your wife understand there's a difference between South Carolina snow and Wisconsin snow?
Vic: It's a dry cold.
Chris from Fernandina Beach, FL:
My son and I had season tickets this year and will take away some very special memories. The experience of a live game cannot be equaled by the best 3D HDTV because a TV cannot replicate the emotions of 50,000 other people sharing the same moment in time.
Vic: When you watch a game on TV, you see what TV wants to show you. When you sit in the stands and watch the game, you see what you wanna see. That's the difference. You feel, too. You take notice of the clouds in the sky and their movement. You feel the wind kick up as the punter receives the snap from center. You smell the grass and the cigar from the guy two rows behind you. All of your senses are stimulated and they embed themselves in your memory to create a much larger experience than a couch and a TV can offer. What's most important is that for the rest of your life you can say, "I was there."
Lisa from Atlantic Beach, FL:
Vic, been trying to pretend you're not really leaving. I'll miss you and, as one of the few female entrants in your golf tournament, I even bought new shoes for the 2011 tournament; the Nike mesh kind to keep cool.
Vic: You got the wrong guy, Lisa. I'm not into that foot stuff.
Mark from New York, NY:
I wish you well in Green Bay. If you do read this, I want to express what your insight has meant to me and to my love of the greatest game. I do not intend to invoke pity, so please feel none, but I have a disability that has kept me wheelchair bound my entire life. I have no regrets, save one, which is to not have played the game. I watch. I love to watch. In high school I was given a chance to be around the team during my senior year, keeping defensive statistics. I'm sure my sheet wasn't official but it didn't matter. The defensive coordinator was a teacher of mine and we often talked about the game. He asked me once what position I would have wanted to play. I answered quickly, "fullback or linebacker." When he asked why I told him that if I could only have one play, I would want to spend it hitting someone. I see that as being the root of the game. Through your stories, I feel like I relive that moment that never happened. I am reminded of the confrontation, the fear and the joy. Those moments are somehow lost in the media today.
Vic: You get it, Mark; you truly get it and you are living proof that you don't have to play the game to appreciate it and understand it. All you have to be is sensitive enough to know what it's about and how it challenges and taxes the human spirit. You would've been the best kind of football player, Mark, which is to say someone who is committed to the essence of the game.
Faye from Atlantic Beach, FL:
My husband travels to Milwaukee every week for business. I told him to alert the Packers fans that Vic is on the way and to watch for you. One if by land, two if by sea?
Vic: How about three if by rental truck? One brought me here and one will take me away from here. I remember finding out the gas gauge wasn't working, so I kept stopping to fill up every couple of hundred miles to make sure I didn't run out of gas. Isn't it funny what we remember when our senses are stimulated?
Russ from Atlanta, GA:
My wife and I are planning on taking our annual away game trip to Pittsburgh for the Jags/Steelers game next year. We are already planning on eating at Primanti Bros. (which I first learned about from your column). Assuming this may be the only time we ever go there, what is the must-have sandwich we need to get?
Vic: I was always fond of the left descending coronary clogger. It's the one with cole slaw and French fries in it.
Chris from Westerville, OH:
Would someone designated as "third quarterback" be allowed to play another position during the game, such as on special teams? I'm thinking about someone like Antwaan Randle El.
Vic: The "third quarterback" may only play quarterback. I'm surprised by these questions. The "third quarterback" designation has been around as long as the Jaguars have. This isn't new stuff.
Frank from Charlotte, NC:
When did you publish the first Jaguars Inside Report? I have saved some of the very early ones and wonder if they are the inaugural copies that I could use in a Jags shrine.
Vic: I'm looking at the JIR 1995 covers poster that's framed and hanging on a wall in my office. The picture in the top-left corner of the poster is from the first-ever edition of JIR. It is dated July 25, 1995, and it bears the picture of quarterback Steve Beuerlein and the headline, "It's time." Four days later, the Jaguars played in the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio, against the NFC expansion team, the Carolina Panthers. It had been a month since I had left home and Canton was close enough to home that I felt a strong sense of homesickness that weekend. We fight through those things because we know that life is about doing tough things. It's how we grow and it's that growth that feeds our self-esteem. Jacksonville allowed me to grow.
James from Orlando, FL:
I just asked Mel Kiper in a live chat if he saw the Jags targeting a quarterback in the first couple of rounds and he told me that defensive end was our number one need. Why do they pay him again?
Vic: Need is defined by now. What does a team need right now? In the Jaguars' case, I don't think they need a quarterback right now, but they're gonna need one soon because the future of a team is seldom built on a quarterback in his mid-30's. In my opinion, the Jaguars' greatest need is in their secondary. They need help in the secondary now. I would agree with Kiper, however, that the Jaguars still have need at defensive end. Aaron Kampman will be 10 years in the league and coming off knee reconstruction. You can never have too many pass-rushers.
Kamal from Novi, MI:
Can you explain that weird-sounding rule during the NFC championship when, because it was inside two minutes of the first half, Matt Forte was not allowed to advance Cutler's fumble because only the fumbling player can advance the ball within two minutes? I don't understand the rule or its purpose.
Vic: It's the "Holy Roller Rule." Look it up and you'll have your answer, or give Dave Casper, Ken Stabler or Pete Banaszak a call. They can explain it.
Sarah from Jacksonville Beach, FL:
AMC had "Airplane!" on last night. Instead of going to bed, I watched it in your honor. You'll be missed around these parts, Vic. Good luck with your new endeavors. We'll follow wherever you go. Don't eat the fish.
Vic: There are two things I will not do on an airplane. One of them is eat fish.
Robert from Las Vegas, NV:
Vic, you have to listen to this: Real Men
Vic: We do have fun, don't we?
