The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team located in Jacksonville, Florida. They are currently members of the Southern Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Jacksonville Jaguars joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1995. Jacksonville is one of three teams never to have played in either a Super Bowl or any other NFL Championship.
In 1991, the NFL announced that it would add two new teams, originally in time for the 1993 season. Five cities were ultimately chosen as finalists for the two new teams: Charlotte, North Carolina; St. Louis, Missouri; Baltimore, Maryland; Memphis, Tennessee; and Jacksonville. The biggest potential obstacle for the Jacksonville bid was nonstop turmoil and conflict surrounding the potential ownership group. The group called itself Touchdown Jacksonville! and placed its formal application with the NFL in 1991. After some defections and mutinies, the group came to be led by the relatively deep pockets of J. Wayne Weaver, shoe magnate and founder of Nine West. It was in 1991 this group confidently announced that it would call its team the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Largely due to being underwhelmed by the remaining suitors, the NFL and others encouraged Jacksonville interests to revisit the issue and resurrect their bid. About a month later negotiations between the city and Touchdown Jacksonville! resumed, and a slightly revised aid package was approved by a solid majority of the City Council. Officially back in the race, Jacksonville officials were energized, indicated by a drive to sell club seats that resulted in over 10,000 seats being sold in 10 days. At 2:12 p.m. (EST) on the afternoon of November 30, Jacksonville was announced as the winning franchise. The next evening, 25,000 fans celebrated at the Gator Bowl as season ticket sales were kicked off. Within ten days, the Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville's daily newspaper) announced sales had passed the 55,000 seat mark.
After the Gator Bowl on December 31, 1993, the old stadium was essentially demolished and replaced with a reinforced concrete superstructure; all that remained of the old stadium was the West upper deck and a portion of the ramping system. The new Jacksonville Municipal Stadium opened on August 18, 1995 with a preseason game against the St. Louis Rams.
The day after the NFL awarded the expansion team to Jacksonville, a triumphant and surprised Wayne Weaver held up the Jacksonville Jaguars' proposed silver helmet and teal jersey at the NFL owners' meeting in Chicago. The team's colors were revealed to be teal, gold, and silver with black accents. However, this jersey and helmet design stirred controversy. Both included the team's logo with a gold leaping jaguar. This caught the attention of Ford Motor Company, parent of the automaker Jaguar, in that the Jacksonville Jaguars' logo bore what they considered to be too much resemblance to the automaker's logo, which was also used as a hood ornament. Though no lawsuit was brought to trial, an amicable agreement was ultimately reached where Jaguar would be named the official car of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Jacksonville Jaguars would redesign their uniforms.
The new logo became a prominent snarling Jacksonville Jaguars head with a teal tongue. During the Jacksonville Jaguars' first ever preseason game, teal-colored candies were handed out to all the fans who attended, turning their tongues a teal color just like on the logo. The redesigned uniforms feature an all-black helmet, white pants, gold numbers and trim, and either teal or white jerseys. A prowling jaguar replaced the leaping jaguar on the sleeves. Minor modifications have been introduced since then, such as changing the font of the jersey numbers.
For most of its short history, the Jacksonville Jaguars did what many other NFL teams located in subtropical climates traditionally practice: wear their white jerseys at home during the first half of the season — forcing opponents to wear their dark ones under the sweltering autumns in Jacksonville. However, ever since Jack Del Rio took over as head coach in 2003, the team seems to only wear their white jerseys at home during September.
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