By Dickie Anderson
There has been great reason to celebrate in Northern Florida. Our professional football team is winning games. The Jacksonville Jaguars beat the big boys – the Kansas City Chiefs, the losers in last year’s Super Bowl. Best of all, it was on Monday Night Football, so 20 million football fans know we are for real. Notice I use the word “we.” People take ownership of the football teams they support. In a time when many are frustrated with something in the world, it has been a great relief to share everyone’s enthusiasm for our team. Jacksonville is known for its enthusiastic fan base ever since it was awarded a franchise in 1993, beating out larger markets like Baltimore and St. Louis. So how did “we” become the Jaguars? It was the result of a Times-Union Newspaper contest. Just think we could be Sharks, Panthers, or Stingrays. The name stuck even though Jaguars are extinct in Florida.
The other side of the highs are the inevitable lows. As Jim McKay so famously shared, sports fans experience in no particular order, “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” So, less than a week after our celebrated victory against Kansas City, the Seattle Seahawks had their own shining moment. Seattle 20 and Jacksonville 12.
Sports and competition are a part of our family makeup, especially football. Sometimes passion goes too far. One son, trying to get his high school football team fired up for the coming season, suggested the team shave their heads. My son reassured me that his best friend’s mother had given the OK, so I did too. Later, I found out the friend had told his mother that I had OK’d the stunt. I pulled up to pick up the boys after football practice. The team poured out the door. There were no shaved heads, not a one. Finally, the two conspirators walked out the door looking sheepish, shorn sheepish. It seems once the dog clippers came out and the first two got their cuts, enthusiasm quickly ebbed. It took a long time for that hair to grow out, and it was not a great football season.
Yes, we love other sports. Not so much basketball, but we do tune into golf and tennis, the sports that we each competed in years gone by. But there is nothing like the fierce loyalty of a football game, especially the annual Florida/Georgia game, popularly known as the world’s biggest outdoor cocktail party. Marching bands, fans wearing team colors, and many times, outrageous costumes. Predictable antics in the student sections make the game even more entertaining. Football brings people together to share something they enjoy. Parties abound before and after football games.
Football has a way of keeping us on the edge of our seats. All kinds of variables like fumbles, interceptions, and penalties can completely change the momentum of a game. Games can go back and forth and not be decided until the very last second. True drama.
So we are enjoying a teal and black highs and handling our losses. Win or lose in the weeks ahead, we will be there in front of our TV cheering on for “our” Jags.