Sad State of Affairs in Jacksonville

Literally dozens of people on hand to watch the Jags.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are bad—very bad, even. They may very well be the most hopelessly terrible team in American sports right now. So much so that their continued existence has been, more or less, relegated to a punchline.

That’s the bad news. The worse news is that there is no good news.

Fans of long downtrodden teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, Detroit Lions, N.Y. Knicks and Edmonton Oilers have something completely lacking in Jacksonville: History. When times are tough they can draw upon better times from decades past to give them hope.

Having joined the NFL as an expansion franchise in 1995, the Jags don’t really have much to hang their collective hat on. After surprise success early on—they made the playoffs four consecutive years from 1996-99—their fortunes began to fade. Jacksonville has qualified for the postseason just twice since 2000, the last time being ’07.

Wait. Is this guy even a Jags fan?

The Jags’ decline in ’08 was sharp—they dropped from 11-5 and a Wildcard Playoff spot to 5-11 and dead last in the division. They improved slightly the next two seasons, but with the exception of two years they made the playoffs since ’00, the 8-8 record in 2010 remains the high water mark of the other 11 seasons.

Their 0-2 start this season doesn’t bode well for reversing that trend. And Jacksonville didn’t just look bad in those two losses—they looked positively inept against the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders, two of the only teams in the NFL that have as bad, or worse, than them since 2000.

And it’s not like Jags fans can even look forward to the draft with any real enthusiasm. With very few exceptions, their draft board the last few years reads like a who’s who of human crap. (Football wise, nothing personal)

Unfortunately, it’s not going to matter that they haven’t had a home game blacked out since 2009 if they don’t field a team worth coming out to see. It seemed there was a groundswell of support for local boy Tim Tebow building among Jags fans, who wanted to see the team sign the unemployed quarterback.

On Monday they staged a rally outside the stadium to show their enthusiasm for Tebow. In reality all it showed was their lack of enthusiasm for anything—only 20 people showed up. They certainly didn’t do themselves or Tebow any favors with that sad display.

So this happened…

And just when you think it can’t get any worse than over a decade of futility and Tim Tebow being your best option at quarterback, that’s exactly what happens. On Sunday WKMG-TV, the local CBS affiliate in Jacksonville, tweeted out a special reminder to fans:

Ouch.

How nice of them to publicize their contractual obligation.

At this rate, an announcement from owner Shad Khan about the team’s move to Los Angeles should be coming any day now.