Distinctly remember the old footage of new Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio riding atop a pickup truck with a shotgun strapped across his chest as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs during the NFL players’ strike in the 1980s. Real nice. Great guy, there. Jaguars’ ownership must have missed that one. They’ll probably see that side of the guy when this talent-seeking team fails to live up to the promise that it thinks it has in the post-Coughlin era. Accident-prone in Jacksonville Clearly I'm missing a lot by not following the Jacksonville Jaguars: [Y]ou've got to wonder how Jacksonville rookie coach Jack Del Rio got away with having an ax in his locker room. Yeah, the same ax that Chris Hanson clumsily wielded on Thursday morning, producing a gash that likely will end the season for the Jaguars punter.
Hanson out for season NFL.com wire reports JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Oct. 10, 2003) -- Jaguars punter Chris Hanson will miss the rest of the season after gashing his leg with an ax while chopping a log in the locker room in what was supposed to be a motivational stunt. Hanson was put on the reserve list for non-football injuries. Unlike players who are placed on injured reserve, those on the non-football list don't necessarily have to be paid by their teams. But the Jaguars said they will give Hanson his salary. Hanson, the team's only Pro Bowl player last season, needed emergency surgery to repair damage to his right, non-kicking leg. He could be ready to kick again before the end of the season, but the Jaguars decided they couldn't afford the roster spot, so they decided to end his season. The team signed Mark Royals, formerly of the Dolphins, to punt and hold for kicks. Miami cut Royals last month. The log Hanson was chopping a log put in the locker room at the behest of coach Jack Del Rio, who used the mantra "keep chopping wood" to inspire his players when they got off to an 0-3 start. "I'll find another slogan," Del Rio said. "The message was understood." While the ax was removed shortly after the injury, the log remained in the locker room the next day. Before the ax was removed, several players did, in fact, take Del Rio seriously and chop the wood. Hanson got hurt while the position players were in morning meetings. Hanson, who will be in a boot for four to six weeks, has not returned to the team. "We enjoyed it while it lasted," tight end Kyle Brady said of having the ax in the locker room. "But obviously, something bad happened yesterday with it, so it had to go." Royals had played in 211 consecutive games until the Dolphins released him two weeks ago. He averaged 40.2 yards a punt in the first three games. "I was surprised when I got the call, especially the nature of the injury," Royals said. "You don't hear about that every day. I feel bad for Chris. I know him well. He's a great guy. He's had some unfortunate luck the last few years of his life." In June 2002, Hanson, his wife and former Jaguars kicker Jaret Holmes were severely burned while they were making fondue at Hanson's house, and the fondue pot overturned. Hanson didn't miss any playing time, however, because the accident happened in the offseason. AP NEWS The Associated Press News Service Copyright 2003, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
Apparently you are missing a lot when it comes to the Jags. They've made a quantum leap on defense since JDR hit town, just like the Panthers did when he was named DC, just like the Ravens did when he was a coach there. All coincidental, I'm sure. Guy's been trying to win with a rookie, now second year QB in a division with Peyton Manning and Steve McNair. Nobody short of Vince Lombardi would have finished higher than third in that division last year, and Jax is on the cusp of the playoffs this year in one of the strongest AFCs in modern history. Besides, he's a Republican :thumb:
Upwardly mobile Del Rio's quick rise through coaching ranks raises eyebrows Posted: Friday January 17, 2003 8:28 PM Updated: Saturday January 18, 2003 5:24 PM Don Banks - Inside the NFL Jack Del Rio obviously wowed the Jacksonville Jaguars this week, and it's not difficult to understand why. Just seven seasons removed from the NFL playing field, Del Rio is an impressive young football coach. He's well-liked and well-respected by his peers, his players love playing for him, and he's said to have one of the sharper minds in the game. He's articulate, passionate about his work, and leaves nothing but good impressions in his wake. Still, eyebrows were raised around the league this week when Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver tapped Del Rio as his team's new head coach, and that too isn't hard to understand. Del Rio, 39, has been an NFL coordinator for just one year, this season in Carolina. And while he made the most of his opportunity on John Fox's staff, helping the Panthers soar from 31st and last in team defense in 2001 to second overall this season, Del Rio's big promotion came suddenly by league standards. Or at least standards that seem to apply in some notable cases. Del Rio, who becomes the league's second-youngest head coach behind Tampa Bay's Jon Gruden, deserves nothing but congratulations and well wishes. He got a chance to interview for his first head coaching job and seized the day, winning a competition in Jacksonville that was dominated more by the names that dropped out of the running than those remaining in it. Good for him, and good for the Jaguars, who likely recognized and landed a rising star. But you couldn't help but wonder, in a week when Marvin Lewis' seven-year stint as a league defensive coordinator happily came to an end with him getting the Cincinnati head coaching job, about Del Rio's ascension and how the process accelerated so dramatically. The natural question is how come it has yet to work that way for talented black defensive coordinators like Ted Cottrell with the Jets, Greg Blache with the Bears, Lovie Smith with the Rams, or the recently fired Willie Shaw of the Vikings? How come one big season didn't land them a head coaching job? How come it took men like Tony Dungy and Lewis so many more years of waiting in line? As one NFL head coach said this week: "Whatever progress the league made with Marvin Lewis finally getting a head coaching job, you wonder if it didn't get negated with Del Rio getting hired in Jacksonville. Jack's a talented coach, and he'll do well. But his chance came very quickly, and that can't make the league look too good." But Del Rio's hiring raised questions that extend beyond race and equal opportunities for minority coaches. Age discrimination is one of the most unspoken of taboos in the NFL, but it's the hot potato issue that never gets talked about. There's no Johnnie Cochran and league-sponsored diversity committee to fight that fight. While Del Rio was introduced to Jacksonville fans on Friday evening, ultra-successful defensive coordinators like Jim Johnson in Philadelphia and Monte Kiffin in Tampa Bay -- both of whom are white, in their early 60s, and career assistants -- went about the business of preparing their units for Sunday's NFC title game. "There were a lot of people who were surprised to see Jack get that job in Jacksonville,'' said Blache, the Bears defensive coordinator, on Friday. "And I agree that Jack is a fine football coach. I'm happy for him. He's done a good job everywhere he's gone. But what about Jim Johnson? What about Monte Kiffin? This is more than just a racial issue. "There are some fine, fine football coaches out there who have been at this for a long time, and had success for multiple years. There are a lot of other exceptional coaches who have done it more than once. I was more upset about Jim Johnson being overlooked. I worked with Jim in three different places. Here he is in a second straight championship game, going against Monte Kiffin, who has had one of the league's top defenses for five or six years. Those guys' clocks are running. Their chances are dwindling." Equity, of course, is never promised in the world of football coaching any more than it is, shall we say, in real life. But could you blame a Cottrell or a Johnson or a Kiffin for wondering, especially after this week, if their day will ever come? "When we got into this business," Blache said, "there wasn't a contract of fairness that we signed. There have been a lot of coaches fast-tracked over the years. Who knows what people are looking for and what they want? When an owner hires a guy, it's a marriage. It's got to work between those two people. "Some men marry someone their own age, and some like young girls. If they're comfortable together, the rest of us can sit and pontificate and speculate, but in the end, it doesn't matter. It was a personal choice." Again, Del Rio has nothing to apologize for. He worked hard and got his chance, as everyone would want. It was just the juxtaposition that was so jarring. Lewis's opportunity finally arrived, concluding a three-year saga, but Del Rio's chance got here via warp speed. That's reality, like it or not. But for a league trying to recommit itself to equity in the workplace, and defining that goal perhaps a bit too narrowly, this week felt a little like one step forward and two steps back.
I'm sure you could find embarassing behavior somewhere in the past of every coaching candidate. So what? It's only a problem if it's a recurring situation and it hurts the organization/program. That doesn't seem to be the case with Del Rio.
My favorite memory of JDR (Hayward High alumni, just like Bill Walsh) was the pic of him kicking Otis Taylor's @SS when Taylor was working for the Chiefs and he crossed the players' picket line during the '87 strike, which pissed off JDR.... The pic was of both of their shoes and guess who was on top...
:lol: :lol: :lol: :rofl: :rofl: Wow. That distinction is nto easy to accomplish, but he did it. I guess it's JDR's fault that the PUNTER decides he's also a professional lumberjack and, due to his lack of hand-eye coordination, mistakes his leg for a tree stump. :lol:
