JACKSONVILLE – Let's get to it …
Greg from Section 122, Jacksonville, FL
Hey O-Man, with Father's Day coming up, I was remembering my dad, who is gone now. He got me into football as a kid taking me to see the OG Washington Team (I know that word is now taboo, ugh) at old RFK Stadium. It was my first introduction to the live experience and why I still hold season tickets 25 years later for my Jags. Before the KOAF became this icon, did you ever have any experiences like that with your dad? I mean: Outside doing this writing gig, did you ever have any fandom in you that perhaps allows you to understand how us passionate fans feel? Happy Father's Day O-Man, keep on being the KOAF.
I am no way, shape or form an icon – though I am the king of all funk. Loyal O-Zone readers – and he knows who he is – know I also grew up a mammoth fan of the Washington Football Team. While I also have alternately been a fan of the Seattle Supersonics, North Carolina basketball, the Oakland A's and Roger Federer at times, my interest/fan passion for those teams and athletes never came close to the passion I felt for the Washington Football team from the early 1970s until the early 1990s. I confess there were times when their results shaped my mood to annoyance of those around me. And indeed most of my best memories with that franchise are intensely connected with my father, the late Richard Oehser. Though we became very close afterward, we weren't overly close while I was growing up. This wasn't because of conflict as much as he traveled a lot and didn't particularly connect with young children – even young children as charming as young O-Zone. Where we did connect was the Washington Football Team. I watched the ridiculously miscalled Mel Gray Play with him in 1975. I watched the gutwrenching loss to the Dallas Cowboys in the 1979 regular-season finale with him. We watched all three of the franchise's Super Bowl victories together. We watched pretty much every game of the 1991 Super Bowl season together sharing superstitions such as his glasses always having to sit in a certain place on the coffee table during games. The best memory? I would have to say the Super Bowl victory following the 1982 season. When John Riggins scored on his iconic 43-yard touchdown run that essentially won that game, we cheered and jumped without shame and with sheer joy. For him, it was seeing the team that he had followed for nearly 50 years – and that he had first followed as a kid growing up in D.C. – win its first championship in 40 years. For me, it was seeing my childhood team win its first. I was 16 at the time, a senior at what was then Jacksonville Episcopal High School. When you're 16 and you're team hasn't won the Super Bowl, you think it can never happen. When it does, it's as if you're seeing the impossible and unimaginable – and you wonder if there ever can be a feeling that good. So, yes … I understand the passion of fans. I may no longer feel it with the passion of that 16-year-old, but I understand it.
Jerry from Italia, FL
Zone, I just read the Friday mail bag and can't believe the most important news from the week didn't get one mention. How in the heck did no one even think to congratulate The Best Mascot in the World, Jaxon de Ville, for his inclusion in the Mascot Hall of Fame? If no one else will, let me be the first to say a well-deserved congratulations Jaxon!
Jaxson de Ville indeed apparently has been elected to the Mascot Hall of Fame. So this was something that happened.
P Funk from Murray Hill
A decade of reliable good quarterback play. A top pass rusher on a second contract. A head coach with an earned respect and reputation of results. Two coordinators that will soon be head coaches. The Jags as an organization just feels different now. The future is unknown, but one thing is for sure: There is no rebuild coming for the team. How many times have we as fans be able to say that?
Few.
Sean from JACKSONVILLE
Here's hoping John Henderson and Kevin Hardy make it into the College Football Hall of Fame. Ah, the good ol' days.
Former Jaguars defensive tackle John Henderson and former Jaguars outside linebacker Kevin Hardy indeed are on the ballot for the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame. The electees are expected to be announced in early 2025. I never covered and don't know Henderson. What I know of him is when I covered the Indianapolis Colts in the 2000s they focused mainly on Henderson, Stroud and running backs Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew when preparing for games versus the Jaguars. I covered Hardy from the time the Jaguars selected him No. 2 overall in the 1996 NFL Draft until 2000. I have fond memories of covering him and have enjoyed the times I've seen him in recent years. Here's hoping both make the College Hall.
Sean from Oakleaf, FL
I find it interesting the other four quarterbacks drafted in the first round (first 15 picks) of the 2021 NFL draft have all been traded away by their original teams. It can always get worse.
Damn right it can.
Brian from Round Rock, TX
Congrats to Trevor. Head Coach Doug Pederson and offensive coordinator Press Taylor's development of the most important man in the organization is now even more critical, if they had any doubts about that. It seems that they took a hard look at things in the offseason and are setting up for success. I'm hopeful. You?
I think the Jaguars can be good this season. I think they can win the AFC South if they remain healthy. I think Trevor Lawrence absolutely has a chance to be an elite quarterback.
Nick from London
I don't get fans saying Trev is overpaid. I agree his performance isn't elite yet, but the key word to me is yet. He is still young, and you have to invest in potential. Taking a team from worst (for two consecutive seasons) to a Super Bowl is hard, let alone winning the thing. To change the organization culture takes time, and not just one or two players. Let's judge at the end of the contract, not the start!
OK.
Stephen from Belfast, United Kingdom
John, I will probably be in the minority, but I just don't understand the contract for Trevor at this time. After his second season, it looked like a no-brainer as he looked every part a franchise quarterback. However, he was pretty poor at times last year and I think it raised question marks. We had him under control for at least this year and next under the fifth-year option, then of course there is the franchise tag. I don't know why we would not just wait for another year to see if he is the guy he looked like in Season 2, or more the guy from Season 3, before making him the highest-paid player in the league. If he plays this year like the guy from Season 3, we should realistically be looking to go a different direction at quarterback, but obviously this cant happen now. Here's hoping Balke and co are right.
The Jaguars believe Lawrence is the guy. If you believe a quarterback is the guy, you pay him like the guy.
Jim from Callahan
I'm sure you're getting flooded with comments about Trevor. I'm happy for the guy but genuinely surprised that he got the top contract and that he wanted it. He hasn't delivered yet. You can say they were 8-3 before he got hurt, but the defense won many games early. I like TL, but my list of quarterback, I'd take before him right now for five years is: Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills, Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens, Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, C.J. Stroud of the Houston Texans and Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers. Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers, Jordan Love of the Green Bay Packers, Jaren Goff of the Detroit Lions and Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys are a push. He's not a Top 6 guy yet, maybe not even top 10.
You're surprised he wanted it?
John from Jacksonville
Hi KOAG F - Do you think Trevor will buy a Waffle House?
One can only hope.
Rob from Jax
Any idea what the nickname Steezy Trev means or where it came from? Doesn't seem to have caught on as I've only seen it a few times which feels right as it's terrible. Thanks O.
I'll be 58 next month. I haven't known where a nickname has come from since the late eighties.
