Outgoing Jaguars Owners Wayne and Delores Weaver were thanked by the team and its fans “with golden helmets, an unexpected honor and an outpouring of affection during an emotional ceremony at halftime of Sunday's game against the Colts,” according to Garry Smits of the FLORIDA TIMES-UNION. Sunday’s victory over the Colts sent Weaver “out a winner in his 352nd Jaguars game,” and it also “officially ushered in the Shahid Khan era as the Jaguars’ owner.” Weaver said, “It was a special day, and a little overwhelming. It was very emotional at times to realize this really is it. There's no turning back now.” Smits wrote the “highlight of the day was when Weaver and his wife were surprised with a spot on the Pride of the Jaguars.” Weaver: “I was shocked. I had no idea that was going on” (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 1/2). Weaver said leaving is “bittersweet.” Weaver: “I’ve made peace with it. It’s our time to move to the next phase of our lives. It’s the right time.” He added, “We’ve talked enough over the years that at some point we had to have an exit strategy and what was really important to me was that the team stay in Jacksonville. I found the right person and the right family that’s going to come in and continue to build the legacy we started here in Jacksonville, so that was my biggest motivation of timing right now.” Weaver said of Khan: “You get to know people. You get to know their values. First of all, I admire his story. He’s a great American story.” Weaver said the deal to sell the team “was done in the Omni hotel bar, the two of us sitting there.” Weaver: “I took out a cocktail napkin and wrote it on that; he’s going to frame it. It was a cocktail napkin that I wrote the deal on and I said, ‘Here’s the deal.’ The napkin was square. He said, ‘You will really sell me the team?’ I said let’s shake hands on this deal and I’m going to sell you the team. We shook hands and that was the way it worked.” Weaver indicated the selling price of $760M was the “easiest part of the whole thing.” Weaver: “No question about it. It was never about money for me. It was about fairness and keeping the team in Jacksonville” (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 1/1).
LOOKING BACK: Weaver in a Q&A with JAGUARS.com’s John Oehser said in the first eight years of his ownership he “didn’t do everything right and I learned a lot from” then-coach Tom Coughlin. Weaver added, “I learned a lot from (then-Vice President of Football Operations) Michael Huyghue’s style of running the salary cap versus me being a little naïve about all of that coming in. It was not until the late 1990s that I realized we were getting to a point where we couldn’t keep spending like we were spending. By that time, honestly, it had caught up with us. You can’t hide from reality.” He continued, “If hindsight you could change, I’ll be honest with you: I probably would have never changed Coughlin. I would have tried to have Tom take a step back and just be the coach. I thought about it, but I didn’t think Tom would do it” (JAGUARS.com, 12/30).
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: Delores Weaver said, “Bittersweet’s been way overused, but it does describe it well. I would say it’s sad and yet it’s joyful, because when you give 18 years of your life to something that you care about, it’s hard to then walk away.” She said the couple has “a streak going, that we’ve never missed a game.” Weaver: “Ever. The Jaguars have never been on the field that we’re not there.” She added even in the preseason, they have “never missed a game. Period.” Weaver: “I would be heartbroken if we just sold a team, took the money and didn’t care. That’s not us. We could not do that. So I think we found a person and a family that does care and that will carry on the tradition and build upon that. It’s the best of all worlds. It really is. We feel very fortunate” (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 1/1). Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown said, “The Jaguars have fundamentally changed what it means to be a part of this great city. For that, we owe much to the hard work and dedication of Wayne and Delores Weaver.” Former Mayor John Peyton said, “Wayne and Delores Weaver not only did the unthinkable by helping to lure the NFL to one of the smallest markets ever to be awarded a team, they also embraced our community as their own” (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 1/1). Khan in a special to the FLORIDA TIMES-UNION wrote, “The NFL will certainly miss Wayne and Delores, who represented everything you could ever want in team ownership. Wayne is all about commitment and belief, as evidenced by the fact the NFL is in Jacksonville today.” He added, “The Weavers have given us a lifetime opportunity. With that comes an obligation. Be assured that we will do our very best” (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 1/1).
HIRING THE NEXT COACH: In Jacksonville, Tania Ganguli cites sources as saying that the Jaguars yesterday “requested and received permission to interview five NFL offensive coordinators.” Interim head coach Mel Tucker “is the only coach with a defensive background in line to interview so far.” The interviews “will begin as early as this week.” Khan “intends to be a significant part of the Jaguars’ coaching search, and will sit in on interviews” (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 1/3).
