Hello everyone, I’m Ian but in the world of the Jacksonville Jaguars most people know me as Pedal Bin. I have been following the NFL since 1981 when by chance I saw highlights of Super Bowl XV on British TV. I thought this was the greatest sport ever invented! But my real passion for the game and obsession for the Jaguars started in 2000 after my wife’s Aunt (Auntie Babs) invited us to stay in Jacksonville in the summer of 2000. I fell in love with Jacksonville and we discussed the possibly of moving there, but my wife didn’t want to leave England, so home we came.<\/p>\n
Having gone 14-2 in 2000 surely Super Bowl glory would soon come to Jacksonville. However, I had no idea about this thing called “The Salary Cap”. So, we lost games, lost key players, lost more games, lost Head Coaches and lost a lot more games. For years. However, my devotion to the Jaguars never wavered, it increased. The one T-Shirt I got when I visited Jacksonville was added to with a jersey. Then a hat, a hoody, another jersey, a jacket, more T-shirts, posters, flags, footballs, etc, etc. I joined the Bold City Brigade and helped set up the UK chapter and joined Union Jax too. I had so much Jags memorabilia the attic became my Teal and Black Man Cave and what did not fit there came to my work office. I got a Jags tattoo, but that did not go down well with my wife.<\/p>\n
I was not able to see the Jags play in person until the International Series in 2013 and I have been to every Jaguars London Game since. I did finally mange to get to Jacksonville to see a “proper” home game in 2017. Unfortunately, it was the last home game they lost that year. I am saving up to go back but am waiting for the new stadium in 2028. I have been fortunate enough to meet the Coaches and players past and present through Union Jax Events. I have met Fred Taylor so often he jokingly accused me of practically stalking him one year and I have pretty much run out of things for Tony Boselli to sign.<\/p>\n
The thing I love about the Jags the most, is the people I have met (both from UK and Jacksonville) at the London games and Jags UK Events. The first London game I went on my own, thinking I was probably the only Jags fan going. I met people there that I still keep in touch with and each London Game is our ‘Teal Christmas’ where we all meet up and discuss the highs and lows of the season \u2013 mainly it’s been the lows, but things are on the up! I will always say to new Jags fans, you don’t go to games on your own, you go with Jags fans you just haven’t met yet. They will always welcome you to the big DUUUVAL Family!<\/p>\n
It is an absolute honour to be chosen as the Jacksonville Jaguars International Fan of the Year and I am bursting with pride. It is a dream come true to be able to announce a Jags Draft Pick a be a tiny part of the history of the franchise. I found out I was the IFOTY on what would have been my dad’s birthday and Auntie Babs sadly passed away last year but I’m sure somewhere they are both looking down and smiling. Thank you Mr Khan and Jacksonville Jaguars UK, you have no idea just how much this means to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hello everyone, I’m Ian but in the world of the Jacksonville Jaguars most people know me as Pedal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82749,116,118,117],"class_list":["post-174653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-fan-of-the-year-2020","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}