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Perspectives - Jeff Lageman · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:05
Speaker 1: Jeff Logoman didn't need Jacksonville. Tom Coughlin, though, needed a
0:09
Speaker 1: pass rusher, and the free agent from New York was
0:12
Speaker 1: the best in class. He became the jaguars first marquee
0:16
Speaker 1: free agent and would go on to become one of
0:19
Speaker 1: the most popular players on the field and for the
0:21
Speaker 1: last twenty five years in the city that has become
0:24
Speaker 1: his home. This his perspectives the story of the jaguars
0:29
Speaker 1: first twenty five years, as told by the people who
0:31
Speaker 1: built the franchise from the ground up. This is Jeff Logoman,
0:38
Speaker 1: long a businessman who happened to be a football player.
0:41
Speaker 1: Logoman was well versed in the business of the NFL.
0:45
Speaker 1: He knew well how a pair of expansion teams could
0:47
Speaker 1: expand the market for his services, and he considered both
0:50
Speaker 1: Carolina and Jacksonville. The businessman, though, was interested in having
0:54
Speaker 1: fun after six losing years in New York and let
0:57
Speaker 1: the football player make the decision. Tom is not casual.
1:02
Speaker 1: He's behind his desk. This is kind of formal. That's
1:05
Speaker 1: kind of how he likes to have him and so
1:07
Speaker 1: shake hands and I sit down at this small little chair.
1:10
Speaker 1: I think that probably has the legs cut off just
1:12
Speaker 1: so he can look down on you a little bit.
1:15
Speaker 1: And uh, And we had a we had a heart
1:17
Speaker 1: to heart conversation. He asked me what I was looking
1:19
Speaker 1: for in free agency and and what I wanted to
1:23
Speaker 1: to get in free agency, and and I said, look, obviously, contractually,
1:28
Speaker 1: we want to get taken care of financial. I said,
1:30
Speaker 1: that's obviously first and foremost. And I said then after that,
1:32
Speaker 1: I said, then it's a matter of of one thing.
1:35
Speaker 1: And I said, that's winning. And I looked at him,
1:39
Speaker 1: and I wanted to have an answer about how soon
1:43
Speaker 1: could we win and and when I when I kind
1:47
Speaker 1: of took that approach with it, he he was a
1:49
Speaker 1: little slow to react. Uh, but then he came back
1:53
Speaker 1: with a great answer. He said, look, we have we're
1:55
Speaker 1: gonna have some tools, the multiple draft picks that we're
1:59
Speaker 1: gonna have in each down, we're gonna have free agency,
2:03
Speaker 1: we already had the expansion draft. We're gonna have the
2:06
Speaker 1: ability to get better quick. And he had to sell
2:09
Speaker 1: me on that because you know what, if somebody doesn't
2:11
Speaker 1: have a plan. Look, it can be fun, and you
2:13
Speaker 1: can have a lot of fun going on a new
2:15
Speaker 1: team because an expansion team. But at the end of
2:16
Speaker 1: the day, somebody's got to have a vision, and in
2:19
Speaker 1: that brief conversation that we had, I felt that he
2:22
Speaker 1: had vision, and uh, it's kind of you gotta have faith,
2:27
Speaker 1: right and some things in your life, and and I
2:30
Speaker 1: had faith in that guy. I had faith in Tom Coughlin.
2:33
Speaker 1: And his eyes were described to me long before I
2:38
Speaker 1: ever met him, and that his eyes were very piercing
2:41
Speaker 1: and can be very intimidating. And Uh, to me, I
2:45
Speaker 1: thought they were very confident and also accomplished, and I
2:49
Speaker 1: had a lot of confidence in them to those around
2:53
Speaker 1: the jab War since that inaugural season seemed like a
2:57
Speaker 1: blur then and it's gotten fogg year through the years,
3:00
Speaker 1: but not to log in it. So you got you
3:02
Speaker 1: have to focus on nine because nine ninety nine doesn't
3:07
Speaker 1: happen without ninety five. Because in nineteen without the precedent,
3:13
Speaker 1: and even though you have a brief history, but without
3:16
Speaker 1: the precedent that you established with the toughness level and
3:19
Speaker 1: expectation level, then the ensuing years have no expectation. And
3:24
Speaker 1: I think the nine season was so important in so
3:27
Speaker 1: many different ways because it did it. It established the
3:32
Speaker 1: foundation in which this franchise was gonna run on for
3:35
Speaker 1: the ensuing years, and so you had to make certain sacrifices.
3:40
Speaker 1: In ninety five, for example, I'll never forget and practice
3:44
Speaker 1: during an O t A one day, you had a
3:46
Speaker 1: fight and it was Thomas Lnsky and Ferrek Collins. And
3:51
Speaker 1: and when Ferrek Collins he grabs Thomas Linsky's helmet and
3:54
Speaker 1: he throws it across the field, has a kind of
3:57
Speaker 1: a sign of toughness or frustration or would ever it was.
4:01
Speaker 1: And Tom Coughlin walks over to Ferrek Collins tells him
4:05
Speaker 1: to go pick the helmet up, and Ferrik he refuses
4:08
Speaker 1: and asked him again. He refused again, and so Tom
4:11
Speaker 1: just kind of let it pass. And then I'll never forget.
4:14
Speaker 1: After practice, you know, the defensive line fare Colins, defensive lineman,
4:17
Speaker 1: we get together to a little breakdown with John P's,
4:20
Speaker 1: our defensive line coach, and then we start to walk
4:22
Speaker 1: off the field from south of the stadium, which is
4:25
Speaker 1: where the practice fields used to be. And I'll never
4:28
Speaker 1: forget it. Ferrek Colins is walking in front of me,
4:30
Speaker 1: and I see Tom Coughlin walk up to him and
4:32
Speaker 1: literally start walking alongside him, reach down and grabs his
4:34
Speaker 1: helmet and says something to him and that was it
4:37
Speaker 1: for Ferrek Colins. He was gone that day. But that's
4:39
Speaker 1: the sacrifice that you had to to make of cutting
4:43
Speaker 1: what was gonna be a really good football player. He
4:45
Speaker 1: might have been our best defensive tackle that we had
4:47
Speaker 1: on the roster, but it didn't matter. It was more
4:51
Speaker 1: important to establish that there's one boss with a football team,
4:55
Speaker 1: that's Tom Coughlin, and you either do it his way
4:58
Speaker 1: or you're not gonna be here. And that was a
5:00
Speaker 1: lesson that everybody saw on that football team. And that's
5:03
Speaker 1: so from nine nine, people knew that you do not
5:09
Speaker 1: defy Tom Coughlin otherwise it's gonna cost you your job
5:12
Speaker 1: and it's also gonna cost you your teammate, your teammates
5:16
Speaker 1: performance at the end of the day. And that's those
5:18
Speaker 1: are the things that had to be established in nine
5:21
Speaker 1: and they were certainly established in a very firm manner.
5:25
Speaker 1: Nineteen ninety six started on the right foot but never
5:28
Speaker 1: could find its balance. Mark Brunell's five interception game in St.
5:31
Speaker 1: Louis was followed by Dave Thomas's gruesome leg injury in
5:34
Speaker 1: Cincinnati a few weeks later, and in mid November, Andre
5:38
Speaker 1: Risen was dismissed after a horrendous game in Pittsburgh. It
5:41
Speaker 1: seemed as if there was nowhere to go but down.
5:44
Speaker 1: A lot of people point to a couple different things
5:46
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety six is the turning point, because there's
5:49
Speaker 1: a lot of things that happened in nine and a
5:51
Speaker 1: lot of people don't know about. I mean, first of all,
5:53
Speaker 1: people know about the donuts. What Tom was gonna come
5:55
Speaker 1: in and hang out in the locker room and eat
5:57
Speaker 1: donuts with people, and and then he wasn't gonna be
5:59
Speaker 1: terrible Tom anymore, and he was gonna start to build
6:02
Speaker 1: a nice relationship with the players, and then they would
6:05
Speaker 1: be all seen Kumbayan win football games together. That's a
6:08
Speaker 1: bunch of bullshit. The head coach coming in and having donuts.
6:12
Speaker 1: When he came in, the donuts guys scattered. It was
6:16
Speaker 1: it was like you turned the lights on in the
6:18
Speaker 1: roaches scatter because nobody, nobody wanted to sit down and
6:21
Speaker 1: have a doughnut with Coughlin. There was very few that did.
6:23
Speaker 1: It was a couple of the veteran guys that actually
6:25
Speaker 1: sat there and did have a donut with Couflin, And
6:27
Speaker 1: of course one of them was Jerkovic, who was one
6:29
Speaker 1: of the most sociable players you would ever meet in
6:31
Speaker 1: your life. I had a donut with Tom, you know,
6:33
Speaker 1: but it was veteran guys. But the rest of the
6:35
Speaker 1: guys they were gone. So was that the turning point? No?
6:38
Speaker 1: Was it the cutting of Andre Risen who was uh?
6:44
Speaker 1: Then their stories about Andre Risen holy Cow before he
6:47
Speaker 1: got cut, that were some of the most memorable stories
6:50
Speaker 1: that we have. When I say we the guys that
6:54
Speaker 1: were on that early Jaguars football team where night before
6:57
Speaker 1: a game in New England from on the back of
6:59
Speaker 1: the US and and Andrea was in a different state
7:02
Speaker 1: of mind than some of the other folks and so
7:05
Speaker 1: pretty interesting stories there. But was it when they cut
7:07
Speaker 1: Andrea Rising that turned the franchise around? No, Well, there
7:12
Speaker 1: was also something that was going on because the owner
7:14
Speaker 1: of Wayne Weaver was calling players into his office to
7:17
Speaker 1: find out what was going on with this team. And
7:20
Speaker 1: it wasn't like Tom Couflin approved of Wayne Weaver calling
7:23
Speaker 1: players into his office. This was Wayne Weaver legitimately worried
7:27
Speaker 1: did I have the right man to lead this organization
7:30
Speaker 1: going forward? He called me in his office, He called
7:33
Speaker 1: other key veterans into his office and wanted to know
7:35
Speaker 1: what was going on and what needed to change for
7:38
Speaker 1: us to win. And I remember my conversation with Wayne
7:42
Speaker 1: very well, and he asked me what I thought, and
7:44
Speaker 1: I said, look, I said, we just need to focus
7:45
Speaker 1: on one thing, and that's doing our own jobs. And said,
7:47
Speaker 1: we need to stop worrying about Tom Coughlin, the terrible Tom,
7:51
Speaker 1: and he's not treating us right and he's being too
7:53
Speaker 1: hard on us and all this other stuff. And and
7:55
Speaker 1: I thought that was important to say that to Wayne.
7:58
Speaker 1: And I also think it was important to share that
8:00
Speaker 1: message with the players because I was a captain and
8:02
Speaker 1: I show I shared that message with the players because
8:04
Speaker 1: a lot of the players wanted to tell Wayne that,
8:08
Speaker 1: you know, they wanted to see Tom gone. And I said,
8:10
Speaker 1: it's not about Tom, it's about us. It's about us.
8:13
Speaker 1: This is our football team. This isn't Tom Coughlin's football team.
8:16
Speaker 1: He's part of our team, but it's not his team.
8:18
Speaker 1: It's our team. And I think that that message was
8:22
Speaker 1: was important to be said. And I probably wasn't the
8:24
Speaker 1: only one that was saying that. I think other guys
8:26
Speaker 1: were saying it as well. But I think you combine
8:28
Speaker 1: all of those things together. Andre Rising getting cut, did
8:32
Speaker 1: Tom maybe work on certain relationship better than he had
8:36
Speaker 1: in the past. Sure did the development of players like
8:41
Speaker 1: Jimmy Smith and Mark Burnell and Keny McCardell, and stopped
8:45
Speaker 1: turning the dagon ball over, start playing better defense, start
8:49
Speaker 1: playing position football with special teams. I mean, all those
8:52
Speaker 1: things factored in, but you can't point to it and
8:54
Speaker 1: say it was just this one thing. It was just
8:57
Speaker 1: a compilation of things. And also some damn good for
9:00
Speaker 1: Chin as well. And overtime winning Baltimore, though, took the
9:04
Speaker 1: Jaguars in a different direction. Four and seven became eight
9:07
Speaker 1: and seven, and what seemed implausible in early December, if
9:11
Speaker 1: not entirely impossible in early November, was improbably within their grasp.
9:16
Speaker 1: I think the great thing about where we were at
9:19
Speaker 1: that point at four and seven was there was no pressure,
9:22
Speaker 1: There was no expectation. All we were was a second
9:24
Speaker 1: year expansion franchise. Carolina Panthers were doing pretty good, so
9:29
Speaker 1: you always have a little bit of that comparison going on,
9:31
Speaker 1: so you always want to be able to win that comparison.
9:34
Speaker 1: But we didn't have a lot of expectations, so I
9:37
Speaker 1: think it allowed a lot of guys just to continue
9:39
Speaker 1: to develop, continue to work, continue to get better. And
9:43
Speaker 1: we weren't thinking playoffs in ninety six. We're thinking, let's
9:47
Speaker 1: win a game. Let's let's try to win one game.
9:49
Speaker 1: And so when you when you're focused and you hear
9:51
Speaker 1: so many coaches use that term one game at a time,
9:53
Speaker 1: one game at a time, you know, well, we're just
9:55
Speaker 1: you know, we're looking at the opponent this week and
9:57
Speaker 1: nobody else. That really means something. And there's legitimacy to
10:01
Speaker 1: why people say that, because that's what we were doing.
10:04
Speaker 1: In We were just worried about that week and trying
10:07
Speaker 1: to win that week. But even even to a a
10:13
Speaker 1: more a smaller level than that, we were just trying
10:17
Speaker 1: to get better in each individual practice and also trying
10:21
Speaker 1: to get better during the week to where we could
10:23
Speaker 1: be fresher on game day. And I think that was
10:25
Speaker 1: a big part of it, because Coughlin had very demanding practices,
10:29
Speaker 1: which was expected. He wanted to weed out the week,
10:33
Speaker 1: but then he backed off in practice a little bit,
10:35
Speaker 1: and it also allowed us to be fresher for Sunday,
10:37
Speaker 1: and I think that was a big part of it.
10:38
Speaker 1: So all of those things combined allowed us to be
10:42
Speaker 1: worry free, anxiety free one game at a time, and
10:46
Speaker 1: then we started to get better. And then all of
10:48
Speaker 1: a sudden, you look up and you're like, wait a minute,
10:51
Speaker 1: you know, And we didn't really want to talk about
10:52
Speaker 1: it because we were sitting there talking about different combinations
10:55
Speaker 1: about how maybe we could get into the playoffs, but
10:57
Speaker 1: nobody wanted to talk about it was almost taboo. And
11:00
Speaker 1: the next thing you know, here we're getting ready to
11:01
Speaker 1: face Atlanta and it's like, guys, uh, if we win
11:05
Speaker 1: as we go to the playoffs, and that put the
11:09
Speaker 1: pressure back on it. We didn't play very well against
11:11
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Falcons. I mean, it was probably the as
11:13
Speaker 1: well as we were playing leading up to that. It
11:15
Speaker 1: was probably one of the most poorly played games that
11:17
Speaker 1: we did as a football team in because we were
11:21
Speaker 1: so tense and we were anxiety field because of the
11:24
Speaker 1: pressure of needing to win to get to the playoffs,
11:27
Speaker 1: and obviously wanted to play very well in a big game.
11:31
Speaker 1: I remember I wanted to play well, and I probably
11:33
Speaker 1: didn't play my best game. But at the end of
11:36
Speaker 1: that game, here if the Falcons are driving trying to
11:41
Speaker 1: do everything and in my abilities to stop the Falcons,
11:46
Speaker 1: and then they're bringing out Morton Anderson for this field goal.
11:48
Speaker 1: And I'll never forget I wasn't on field goal block.
11:52
Speaker 1: Wasn't on that team for what reason. I don't know why.
11:55
Speaker 1: I'm six ft six and got length, so does Clyde Simmons.
12:00
Speaker 1: Clyde Simmols out there, and Clyde Simmons has been known
12:02
Speaker 1: to be a great field goal block guy and and
12:05
Speaker 1: had numerous of him in his career. Paul phrase was
12:08
Speaker 1: actually the guy that came in for me on field
12:10
Speaker 1: goal block. So here we are freezing Morton Anders or
12:15
Speaker 1: whatever was I think we called a time out and
12:16
Speaker 1: I go to Larry Pasquality, our special team's coordinator, and
12:18
Speaker 1: I told Larry, I said, I'm not coming off the field.
12:20
Speaker 1: And I said, you better. You better tell Paul Frays
12:22
Speaker 1: did not come in. He says what I said, I'm
12:25
Speaker 1: not leaving the field. I said, I am gonna be
12:27
Speaker 1: on that field. And anyway, I had absolutely no impact
12:30
Speaker 1: on that play whatsoever. I get cut blocked by the
12:33
Speaker 1: offensive lineman. And so if you look at the picture
12:35
Speaker 1: of Morton's miss there, I am on the ground as
12:38
Speaker 1: the ball is sailing up, but he missed it, and
12:40
Speaker 1: and it was a magical moment, but it was I
12:43
Speaker 1: shouldn't even have been on the field at that play,
12:45
Speaker 1: and maybe Paul Fras would have blocked it if they
12:47
Speaker 1: didn't tell Pasquality that I'm staying on the field. Jeff,
12:51
Speaker 1: who rarely tasted victory in New York, was suddenly a
12:54
Speaker 1: connois sewer after five consecutive victories, despite never having played
12:58
Speaker 1: in the postseason. He understood anything was possible for this
13:01
Speaker 1: team that was playing like they belonged, even if the
13:04
Speaker 1: rest of the league thought they were an outlier. It's
13:07
Speaker 1: hard to be the playoff momentum that we had because
13:12
Speaker 1: of the miracle of the win at home against the
13:14
Speaker 1: Atlanta Falcons propelled us to Buffalo, and I had a
13:18
Speaker 1: lot of confidence against the Buffalo Bills because you knew
13:22
Speaker 1: that the heyday of the Buffalo Bills, who I had
13:25
Speaker 1: faced so many different times when I was with the
13:28
Speaker 1: New York Jets, their heyday was gone and they were
13:31
Speaker 1: trying to hang on with a couple of key players
13:33
Speaker 1: Jim Kelly and obviously Bruce Smith. Both of them are
13:36
Speaker 1: Hall of famers and and rightly so, great players. But
13:40
Speaker 1: I just felt really good about our chance against them.
13:44
Speaker 1: I felt good about where our offense was, felt really
13:47
Speaker 1: good about our defense against what I've considered to be
13:51
Speaker 1: an offense that wasn't quite what it used to be
13:54
Speaker 1: in their heyday in Buffalo. So we had confidence, and
13:59
Speaker 1: boy we had I think that the two guys that
14:01
Speaker 1: really stood out in my mind, or stand out in
14:04
Speaker 1: my mind in that game the trone means who is
14:07
Speaker 1: an absolute beast against Buffalo and Clyde Simmons with a
14:12
Speaker 1: huge play against Jim Kelly, and uh boy, what a
14:17
Speaker 1: what a moment, what a special moment, and Clyde making
14:20
Speaker 1: up play and and that was just such a fun
14:22
Speaker 1: game because to go back to where we were at
14:26
Speaker 1: when we were four and seven, we had no pressure,
14:28
Speaker 1: we had no expectation. Well, we go to the playoffs,
14:32
Speaker 1: there's no pressure, there's no expectation. So here we are
14:35
Speaker 1: again playing anxiety free football, having a good time, having
14:41
Speaker 1: probably no expectation or no realistic, realistic expectation that we're
14:45
Speaker 1: going to be in the playoffs. N maybe n but
14:48
Speaker 1: certainly not ninety six. We beat Buffalo like a cool
14:53
Speaker 1: and then now we're going to Denver to face the
14:56
Speaker 1: team I think that they had one win all season
14:58
Speaker 1: long at the number one seed. Nobody was gonna stop
15:01
Speaker 1: John Elway and Bill Romanowski and Terrell Davis, and he's great.
15:06
Speaker 1: Nobody was gonna stop the Denver Broncos of that day.
15:10
Speaker 1: And all we did was show up. And when we
15:12
Speaker 1: showed up, we woke up on game day morning, and
15:15
Speaker 1: we read the newspaper and there's a good article in
15:17
Speaker 1: the newspaper to get some more fuel in the fire,
15:20
Speaker 1: so to speak, from what he page calling us the
15:23
Speaker 1: Jaguards and how does how does how does some team
15:27
Speaker 1: name the Jaguards expect to beat the vaunt of Denver Broncos.
15:31
Speaker 1: And he starts making fun of certain players that are
15:33
Speaker 1: on our roster. And I went up to every player
15:34
Speaker 1: that was in that article. I said, hey, did you
15:36
Speaker 1: read this? Do you read this? You read this, You
15:37
Speaker 1: read this, You better read it. If you hadn't read it,
15:39
Speaker 1: here you go. I wanted to get guys fired up.
15:41
Speaker 1: And then we showed up out there. And then while
15:44
Speaker 1: Mark Brownell in that game, Jimmy Smith in that game, defensively,
15:49
Speaker 1: i'd like to say that we played great. I think
15:51
Speaker 1: we played okay, But maybe that was a day of
15:53
Speaker 1: just offensive football, just being dominant in the magic of
15:56
Speaker 1: Mark Bronell, the magic of of Jimmy Smith. And it
16:00
Speaker 1: wasn't even so much like Natron means from the previous week,
16:04
Speaker 1: But boy, our offense was special in that. And when
16:07
Speaker 1: Mark Brunell could make things happen with his legs, I
16:11
Speaker 1: mean we we were as dangerous of the offensive football
16:14
Speaker 1: team as there was in the league. The way we
16:17
Speaker 1: were playing that day with Mark Brennell at coldback. The
16:22
Speaker 1: sun was stretching over the Rocky mountains, casting splashes of
16:25
Speaker 1: fading light over Mile Heigh Stadium as Logovan walked towards
16:29
Speaker 1: the visitors locker room after that win, the a f
16:32
Speaker 1: C Championship game was in their winshield, but the man
16:34
Speaker 1: who had never played in the playoff game and had
16:37
Speaker 1: now never lost a playoff game wanted to reflect through
16:40
Speaker 1: the rear view mirror before boarding the flight for home.
16:43
Speaker 1: One of the most unique things about that when in
16:45
Speaker 1: Denver was you you rewind all the way back to
16:50
Speaker 1: the preseason and here we are going to Denver to
16:54
Speaker 1: play in a preseason football game, and then all of
16:59
Speaker 1: a sudden whisper start that we had just signed Clyde Simmons, well,
17:05
Speaker 1: Corey Mayfield. Unfortunately, the defensive tackle gets sent home. The
17:10
Speaker 1: morning of the preseason game against the Denver Broncos, Clyde
17:14
Speaker 1: Simmons is flown into Denver. He's told he's not gonna play.
17:18
Speaker 1: They get him outfitted into the uniform, shoulder pads, cleats,
17:21
Speaker 1: nothing that he's ever worn before. And we go out
17:25
Speaker 1: there in the first half and and we didn't play
17:28
Speaker 1: very well in the preseason. This is preseason. Tom Coughlin
17:31
Speaker 1: comes back into that locker room in his irate I
17:35
Speaker 1: mean he is. He is chewing heads off at a
17:40
Speaker 1: ferocious rate. And he comes in and he and everybody's
17:44
Speaker 1: like taking a knee in the middle of the locker
17:46
Speaker 1: room or sitting around on chairs or whatever. And here's
17:49
Speaker 1: this gatorade table with cups filled with gatorade and water,
17:53
Speaker 1: and Coughland comes in and swings his arm through the
17:57
Speaker 1: cups and they just literally fly up into the air
18:02
Speaker 1: and right into the face of Clyde Simmons and me.
18:06
Speaker 1: And then when Coughlin turns his attention to a different direction,
18:10
Speaker 1: Clyde looks at me, gets my attention, He goes, is
18:14
Speaker 1: it like this all the time and I just shook
18:17
Speaker 1: my yes. His eyes were so big. And then you
18:24
Speaker 1: fast forward to the playoffs we just won in Denver,
18:29
Speaker 1: and so it's amazing how things had changed from the
18:34
Speaker 1: preseason of ninety six to the postseason of ninety six
18:38
Speaker 1: with the Jaguars football team that had no expectations. And
18:41
Speaker 1: then coming home was incredible. And I think it was
18:47
Speaker 1: incredible more so the win against Buffalo because what happened
18:52
Speaker 1: was totally unplanned. Those the road from the airport to
18:58
Speaker 1: because back then there was no short cut that everybody
19:00
Speaker 1: takes now back to so it was a long tunnel road.
19:04
Speaker 1: And there's people standing alongside the road, parked alongside the
19:09
Speaker 1: road in the backup pickups, drinking beer, you know, hooting
19:13
Speaker 1: and hollering, and then the buses are crawling along heading
19:17
Speaker 1: through this literally like a tunnel of people and fans
19:22
Speaker 1: heading back to the stadium. So to me, that was
19:25
Speaker 1: so much more special, but as special as the flyover
19:31
Speaker 1: of the stadium coming back from Denver, just because it
19:34
Speaker 1: was unplanned and some of the unplanned things and and
19:37
Speaker 1: and here I was thinking to myself, this is the
19:40
Speaker 1: fun and excitement I was expecting when I came here,
19:43
Speaker 1: as a free agent, and then to beat Denver and
19:46
Speaker 1: then to do a fly over over the stadium and literally,
19:50
Speaker 1: I don't know how many feet we were above the stadium,
19:53
Speaker 1: but we weren't a lot because I could identify people
19:57
Speaker 1: individual people in the stadium. And it was not quite
20:01
Speaker 1: to the level of some of the great flyers that
20:03
Speaker 1: we've had in Jacksonville Jaguar's history, but it was pretty cool.
20:08
Speaker 1: And we actually stopped the card game that we were
20:10
Speaker 1: playing in the back of the plane to look out
20:13
Speaker 1: into the stadium because it was pretty dagon cool. Now,
20:16
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's ever been a seven twenty
20:18
Speaker 1: seven or a seven forty seven, whatever it was that
20:20
Speaker 1: we were flying in back then that's ever done a
20:23
Speaker 1: flyover of an NFL stadium at that level. Before he
20:28
Speaker 1: was ready for more, much more, But after just one
20:31
Speaker 1: more season, his pro football career was complete. Arguably the
20:35
Speaker 1: best shape I've ever been into my life, and I
20:38
Speaker 1: didn't know if this was gonna be. It was last
20:40
Speaker 1: year of my contract, and I hadn't I had no
20:44
Speaker 1: desire to go anywhere else, but I didn't know if
20:47
Speaker 1: anywhere else was going to be in a retirement, so
20:49
Speaker 1: I was kind of unsure. I was thinking that it
20:52
Speaker 1: was gonna be my last year, and I wanted I
20:54
Speaker 1: wanted it to be that. If it was my last year,
20:57
Speaker 1: I wanted it to be my best year. So I
21:00
Speaker 1: was in great shape, uh probably as lean and as
21:03
Speaker 1: strong as I've ever been injury free coming into the season,
21:06
Speaker 1: which couldn't be said for many other years playing professional football.
21:09
Speaker 1: So I was very excited and go to Chicago looking
21:14
Speaker 1: forward to it. It's not a hot weather opening day
21:17
Speaker 1: place against the Chicago Bears, and Edgar Bennett the running back.
21:22
Speaker 1: You know, it's good back and I think he's a
21:24
Speaker 1: local guy, so I was looking forward to facing him.
21:27
Speaker 1: And I'll never forget to play. Was the fourth defensive
21:30
Speaker 1: play of the game. And it's a play away and
21:33
Speaker 1: I'm the right defensive end and I'm trailing down the
21:35
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage and I'm supposed to play backside for
21:37
Speaker 1: any cutbacks, reverse or anything like that, and also to
21:40
Speaker 1: pursue Edgar Bennett. And I'm so fired up, so anxious
21:44
Speaker 1: that I take a little bit too tired of an angle.
21:46
Speaker 1: And when I do, Edgar Bennett decides to plant his
21:49
Speaker 1: foot and then cut back and try to bounce outside
21:52
Speaker 1: of me. So when he does, I'm I've got two more,
21:55
Speaker 1: much too much momentum going. I plant my foot and
21:57
Speaker 1: I dive up and out and then throw my arm
22:00
Speaker 1: out to try to trip him up. And that high
22:03
Speaker 1: knee kick that he had, which kind of like Roger kraigish,
22:07
Speaker 1: he kicks my arm, and my arm pops and and
22:11
Speaker 1: there goes Edgar Bennett. I didn't make the tackle, and
22:14
Speaker 1: there he goes, and I'm on the ground holding my arm,
22:16
Speaker 1: and never forget. The doctor comes out and he looks
22:19
Speaker 1: at me and he says what happened? And I had
22:21
Speaker 1: already been looking at my arm for a while, and
22:24
Speaker 1: I said, well, I tore my bicep ten and it's
22:26
Speaker 1: rolled up in my arm. I said, also spraying this
22:28
Speaker 1: ligament right here. And he goes, well, I've never seen
22:30
Speaker 1: the two of them together. I said, well, you're fixing too,
22:33
Speaker 1: And sure enough did the m r I and had
22:35
Speaker 1: a distal bicep tendant tear, which is the bicep tenant
22:38
Speaker 1: and out of your elbow and everything rolls up like
22:40
Speaker 1: a window shade, And had a second third degree strain
22:44
Speaker 1: of that ligament down on my elbow and was going
22:46
Speaker 1: to require surgery, so and was that going to be
22:50
Speaker 1: season ending or not. Well, they didn't want to hold
22:53
Speaker 1: the roster spot for somebody that may or may not
22:55
Speaker 1: be able to play a play towards the end of
22:56
Speaker 1: the year. So I went to i R and it
22:58
Speaker 1: was one of the most frustrated seasons I've ever had
23:01
Speaker 1: because I just wanted to go out on such a
23:04
Speaker 1: high note. But for me, that was it was a
23:07
Speaker 1: It was a a tough career because in that was
23:11
Speaker 1: my tenth year, and in ten years I had had
23:15
Speaker 1: a herniated disc in my neck, torn a c O,
23:17
Speaker 1: had reconstructive surgery, right interior capsule shifting, right right shoulder,
23:21
Speaker 1: I had dislocated shoulder, had separated shoulders, had multiple broken
23:25
Speaker 1: fingers and thumbs, had a microfracture in my left knee,
23:29
Speaker 1: had an umbilical hernia surgery, and so many other injuries
23:34
Speaker 1: that didn't require surgeries or medical attention. And then, by
23:37
Speaker 1: the way, I found out after I retired that I
23:40
Speaker 1: had a complete terror of my pc al on my
23:42
Speaker 1: left knee and never knew it because I was on
23:44
Speaker 1: so much medication from a shoulder injury. So it was
23:48
Speaker 1: time after the bicep tenan was torn and all I
23:51
Speaker 1: could be was essentially a glorified cheerleader and was certainly
23:56
Speaker 1: tried to be my best at that. And I was
23:59
Speaker 1: hoping that we would win at a level that's never
24:02
Speaker 1: been seen before with this franchise, and we were unable
24:04
Speaker 1: to do that. And that was probably one of the
24:06
Speaker 1: most disappointing things, is that I couldn't be part of
24:10
Speaker 1: making it the best year ever for this franchise. Jeff
24:15
Speaker 1: left football behind, but as he walked out the door,
24:18
Speaker 1: he knew the players were in place for a winning tradition. Yeah,
24:22
Speaker 1: I think I think that my top five guys. I mean,
24:24
Speaker 1: number one for me is the selling from from the
24:29
Speaker 1: day that I ran him over and tore his knee
24:32
Speaker 1: and Steven's point and send him home on Wayne Weaver's
24:38
Speaker 1: private jet to get fixed back in Jacksonville. But I mean,
24:43
Speaker 1: he was just a special talent. And to go against
24:47
Speaker 1: Tony when he was just this pup from USC and
24:51
Speaker 1: he was so good, so good in practice. I mean,
24:55
Speaker 1: here I was seventh year guy going against a rookie,
25:00
Speaker 1: and I remember going, how am I going to beat
25:02
Speaker 1: this rookie? Great player, great player, ultra competitive, great leadership
25:08
Speaker 1: qualities and The reason I put in probably at the
25:12
Speaker 1: top is because no offense to Mark Brunell, but everybody
25:16
Speaker 1: has different leadership qualities, and a lot of people expect
25:19
Speaker 1: a quarterback to always be the main leader of an offense.
25:23
Speaker 1: In the early years of the Jaguars history, Tony Boselli
25:26
Speaker 1: was the leader without question on offense and not a
25:29
Speaker 1: slight of any kind to Mark Brunnell. But that was
25:32
Speaker 1: just the qualities of Mark and Tony, and they were
25:35
Speaker 1: a good fit together because they each had a different
25:37
Speaker 1: quality of strength and Tony Tony's leadership was tremendous. Jimmy
25:42
Speaker 1: Smith I've been a big believer and that guys that
25:46
Speaker 1: have great success on special teams will ultimately be great
25:50
Speaker 1: players on on as positional players as well. And Jimmy Smith,
25:54
Speaker 1: I mean, blocked the punt early in the franchise's history.
25:58
Speaker 1: And then Jimmy Smith became arguably a Hall of Fame
26:01
Speaker 1: wide receiver in this league, and he had such a
26:05
Speaker 1: special relationship with Mark that the two of them could
26:09
Speaker 1: almost communicate without saying anything and without any type of
26:15
Speaker 1: body language whatsoever. It was just something in the eye
26:18
Speaker 1: contact because they had something that was very unique, the
26:22
Speaker 1: ability to change the play and to throw the go
26:26
Speaker 1: route whenever they saw it fit, and or many times
26:30
Speaker 1: that boy, did they ever see it fit. Mark would
26:32
Speaker 1: throw a beautiful ball, and Jimmy just had this speed
26:36
Speaker 1: that if you put him on the clock, I don't
26:38
Speaker 1: think he was that fast, but you put them in
26:40
Speaker 1: pads and on grass, he was faster than everybody else.
26:44
Speaker 1: And when the ball was in the air, he had
26:45
Speaker 1: another gear that nobody else could achieve. Total special player
26:49
Speaker 1: and it was so fun. Because I think a lot
26:52
Speaker 1: of the credit to Jimmy being a great player goes
26:55
Speaker 1: to another one of my great players is Keena Macardell,
26:58
Speaker 1: because without Keena, I don't think that there's a Jimmy.
27:01
Speaker 1: I think with without Jimmy, there's always a Keenan. But
27:05
Speaker 1: I think Keenan gave Jimmy the confidence in the competitive
27:10
Speaker 1: fire to become the player that he became, because Keenan
27:15
Speaker 1: was just such an ultimate competitor. But it wasn't just
27:17
Speaker 1: competition when it came to game day. He taught Jimmy
27:21
Speaker 1: how to practice, because I don't know if Jimmy knew
27:23
Speaker 1: how to practice prior to Keenan getting here, because Keenan
27:26
Speaker 1: practiced like he played Hunter Miles an hour and it
27:30
Speaker 1: didn't matter if he was nicked up. He showed everybody
27:33
Speaker 1: what toughness was as a wide receiver. So I mean
27:36
Speaker 1: those three guys, and unfortunately it's mostly offensive guys, because
27:40
Speaker 1: here I go to the Fred Taylor who he had.
27:45
Speaker 1: He had such a special ability to to slow down
27:50
Speaker 1: and then accelerate faster than anybody. I used to call
27:53
Speaker 1: it the old Fred Sandford dead leg trick. He just
27:56
Speaker 1: stutter a little bit and then that defender would gather
27:59
Speaker 1: himself for a second, and that's all it took. When
28:02
Speaker 1: the defender squared his feed up just for a second,
28:04
Speaker 1: that was it. Fred was gone because Fred had speed
28:08
Speaker 1: like no other and you're talking two eight pounds of speed.
28:12
Speaker 1: And so I loved watching Fred Taylor. And Mark Brnnell
28:16
Speaker 1: is a close right there at number five. But I've
28:19
Speaker 1: got to go to one guy that I've got I've
28:22
Speaker 1: got great respect for, and that's Tony Brackens, who I
28:27
Speaker 1: played with and Clyde played with. And when Tony Brackens
28:31
Speaker 1: came here, I'll never forget the very first practice that
28:34
Speaker 1: we were in pads. And as a veteran guy, you
28:37
Speaker 1: always try to you try to raise the younger players
28:40
Speaker 1: the right way. And so John Peas came to me
28:42
Speaker 1: and came to Clyde and said, I want you guys
28:45
Speaker 1: to work with this young man, Tony Brackens, obviously our
28:48
Speaker 1: second round pick out of Texas. We want we want
28:51
Speaker 1: him to learn to be a pro like you two are.
28:54
Speaker 1: So me and Clyde both agreed that we would work
28:56
Speaker 1: with him. So the first today of pads and I
28:59
Speaker 1: grabbed Tony and he's gonna be my partner in a
29:01
Speaker 1: drill and he lines up for me. He's the defender.
29:05
Speaker 1: I'm the offensive lineman, and so I'm supposed to come
29:07
Speaker 1: off and you know, be a blocker of him, and
29:10
Speaker 1: he's gonna give me a pop in my chest and
29:13
Speaker 1: stand me up and get his feet square and get
29:16
Speaker 1: good hand position. Well, I come off on this drill
29:18
Speaker 1: when John p says, hut, and I get hit in
29:22
Speaker 1: my chest and I literally I can't breathe, and I'm
29:26
Speaker 1: going I'm trying not to show that I'm that I'm
29:30
Speaker 1: in obvious discomfort and pain because I don't want to
29:34
Speaker 1: show this rookie that he's hurt me. So I kind
29:37
Speaker 1: of turned around and got my face away from to
29:40
Speaker 1: catch my breath, and then I'll never forget the drill ends,
29:44
Speaker 1: thank goodness, because he was wearing me out and hurt me.
29:48
Speaker 1: And so as we're going to the next drill, I'm
29:51
Speaker 1: jogging next to Clide and say, Clyde, tomorrow, I wants
29:55
Speaker 1: you to take Tony in that drill. So the next
29:59
Speaker 1: day Clyde takes Tony in that drill and Clyde's eyes
30:04
Speaker 1: just like they were on the gatorade cups when Tom
30:07
Speaker 1: Coughlin knocked all the gatorade and the water into him.
30:10
Speaker 1: His eyes were huge and he goes, my god, I said, exactly,
30:15
Speaker 1: my god. The guy strong. But he's such a great athlete.
30:19
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. When we used to do conditioning drills,
30:22
Speaker 1: he would run with the running backs and outrun them.
30:25
Speaker 1: He could catch football's when the quarterback was standing five
30:30
Speaker 1: ft away from him. And I'm not talking about put
30:32
Speaker 1: his hands up to just bat it up in the air.
30:34
Speaker 1: I'm talking the reaction and the cat quickness to catch
30:37
Speaker 1: a football seven ft away from a quarterback and not
30:42
Speaker 1: bad at but catch it, and then the ability to
30:46
Speaker 1: make the big play. I just have such great respect
30:49
Speaker 1: for him because he is by far one of the
30:52
Speaker 1: most talented players I've ever played with. He is such
30:55
Speaker 1: a good person and he's one of the smartest players
30:58
Speaker 1: that I ever played with. He would be in meetings
31:02
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden you'd be tapping him
31:04
Speaker 1: trying to wake him up because he's taken a nap
31:06
Speaker 1: and meetings, but he had retention that if you told
31:10
Speaker 1: him once, that was all you needed to tell him,
31:12
Speaker 1: because he was so smart. And not only do I
31:15
Speaker 1: have so much respect for him as a player, but
31:18
Speaker 1: Tony Brackens when he came in here was driving this
31:20
Speaker 1: beat up Toyota car that wasn't worth a thousand dollars probably,
31:27
Speaker 1: And the day he left this franchise and he was
31:30
Speaker 1: one of the highest I think it was the highest
31:33
Speaker 1: paid player in the organization's history. When he left here,
31:37
Speaker 1: he was driving that same car and he saved all
31:41
Speaker 1: of his money. And I just have so much respect
31:45
Speaker 1: for him on a personal level, a professional level, and
31:48
Speaker 1: so many other levels, because he's a good man. He
31:52
Speaker 1: was ready for more, much more, but after just one
31:55
Speaker 1: more season, his pro football career was complete. Well, for
32:00
Speaker 1: first and foremost, I feel incredibly fortunate, blessed to have
32:04
Speaker 1: been able to be what I've been here in Jacksonville,
32:08
Speaker 1: and and very few guys have had the opportunity that
32:10
Speaker 1: I've had, And and I'm thankful every day. I mean
32:13
Speaker 1: I literally wake up and I say to myself, could
32:16
Speaker 1: you have written it up any better? And that there's
32:19
Speaker 1: you always have passions in life, and for me, my
32:24
Speaker 1: passions have always been family, football, fishing, hunting, farming, and
32:31
Speaker 1: believing it not people say, farming, what do you mean
32:33
Speaker 1: by that? Why? When I was a kid, I grew
32:35
Speaker 1: up all over one of you was a farmer. And
32:38
Speaker 1: so all of these passions that I that I have
32:41
Speaker 1: and had, they were all met right here in Jacksonville
32:46
Speaker 1: and football, Jacksonville Jaguars. Family got incredible family, blessed with
32:51
Speaker 1: two great kids. Farming, I've got a tree farm in Georgia, fishing, hunting,
32:56
Speaker 1: can do all of that here in Jacksonville, and to
33:00
Speaker 1: a degree that can't be seen in a lot of
33:01
Speaker 1: other places. So, I mean, Jacksonville was just a great fit.
33:06
Speaker 1: And twenty five years. It's hard to believe that it's
33:08
Speaker 1: been twenty five years. But then at the same token,
33:11
Speaker 1: sometimes I wake up in the morning, go, man, it
33:12
Speaker 1: feels like thirty years the body is just kind of
33:16
Speaker 1: getting a little bit old. But uh, but it has
33:18
Speaker 1: been an incredible ride, and I'm not ready for the
33:23
Speaker 1: ride to end yet. I think one of the most
33:26
Speaker 1: exciting things for me has been recently when this franchise
33:31
Speaker 1: hosted a playoff game against the Buffalo Bills, and to
33:35
Speaker 1: see that sea of white in the stadium that hadn't
33:39
Speaker 1: been seen since what I call the honeymoon days of
33:42
Speaker 1: n six, seven and eight. I mean that really took
33:46
Speaker 1: I think it took a lot of fans back to
33:48
Speaker 1: those glory days and rekindled a lot of that fire,
33:52
Speaker 1: that burning fire inside of everybody to be a Jaguar fan.
33:56
Speaker 1: And for me, it was no different. I mean, relet
33:59
Speaker 1: the candle, so to speak. And I mean, I just
34:02
Speaker 1: I love this franchise. I love everything about it. I
34:05
Speaker 1: love the history. I love the players that have gone
34:08
Speaker 1: through here that I get to see occasionally, whether it
34:12
Speaker 1: be in a in a setting in which the Jaguars
34:14
Speaker 1: are the ones who set it up, or whether it
34:16
Speaker 1: be just out on the street. I mean, Jacksonville has
34:19
Speaker 1: been such a great town to a lot of different
34:22
Speaker 1: former Jaguars, but I think particularly the the early year
34:26
Speaker 1: Jaguars because we we have a special feeling for Jacksonville,
34:32
Speaker 1: because I think the people of Jacksonville have a special
34:35
Speaker 1: feeling towards us too, you know, because that was that
34:39
Speaker 1: was the honeymoon period, and that, to me, that will
34:42
Speaker 1: never be replicated, that that special nous of and six
34:46
Speaker 1: and seven. But that special feeling can be different and
34:51
Speaker 1: still be special for this franchise going forward. But but
34:54
Speaker 1: I do I feel so lucky, so fortunate to have
34:59
Speaker 1: been a are of this franchise from the very beginning,
35:02
Speaker 1: and there's not a day that goes by without me
35:04
Speaker 1: going I really am lucky. He left the locker room behind,
35:09
Speaker 1: but he stayed close to the game. Is a jagged
35:11
Speaker 1: worst broadcaster, first on television and most prominently on radio.
35:16
Speaker 1: It isn't the same as putting on a helmet, but
35:18
Speaker 1: it keeps him close to the franchise he loves. I
35:21
Speaker 1: think being in the booth it doesn't fulfill everything that
35:25
Speaker 1: being on the field. There's there's nothing that can fulfill
35:29
Speaker 1: that the competitive fires that you have. I mean, you're
35:33
Speaker 1: not competing in the booth, but you're challenged your challenge,
35:36
Speaker 1: your challenge to have a good broadcast, challenge to execute
35:40
Speaker 1: your job at a high level. And I take that
35:42
Speaker 1: challenge very seriously every week. And but it's different. It's
35:46
Speaker 1: a lot different. And when you're when you're part of
35:49
Speaker 1: a team, which we have a broadcast team and then
35:53
Speaker 1: but a football team is fifty three guys that you're bleeding,
35:56
Speaker 1: you're sweating together, and you're doing it all year long.
35:59
Speaker 1: It's just a little bit different. But I can tell
36:02
Speaker 1: you the money mornings I wake up after broadcasting, I
36:05
Speaker 1: feel a hell of a lot better than I do
36:06
Speaker 1: after the games that were played. So there's there's positives
36:09
Speaker 1: to all of that, and that broadcasting can provide a
36:14
Speaker 1: lot of positive things and and yeah, it keeps you
36:17
Speaker 1: a part of the game. And I think the one
36:19
Speaker 1: thing that's a little bit different, I think is a
36:21
Speaker 1: broadcaster now you develop a lot of great relationships like
36:24
Speaker 1: you had when you were a player. But I think
36:26
Speaker 1: the relationships now as a broadcaster, you don't have you
36:31
Speaker 1: know all the players. You talk to the players, they
36:34
Speaker 1: know who you are. But is that is that relationship
36:38
Speaker 1: like it was when you were paying No, not even close.
36:40
Speaker 1: But you have great relationships with the staff of the organization,
36:45
Speaker 1: whether it be coaching staff, the personnel, staff, and so
36:49
Speaker 1: in a way, you're rooting for the team, but you're
36:54
Speaker 1: rooting for success because of those relationships that you have
36:58
Speaker 1: with people that you've built over the years, and because
37:01
Speaker 1: we all know the reality of football and that if
37:06
Speaker 1: success is not forthcoming, then those relationships will not continue
37:11
Speaker 1: on as they are right now because you have to
37:15
Speaker 1: win in this business to be able to continue to
37:17
Speaker 1: see those persons. So uh, but broadcasting love it. Uh,
37:23
Speaker 1: can't beat it. But at the same token, here's the
37:26
Speaker 1: other one. The paychecks aren't nearly as good.