The Jacksonville Jaguars

[comncense]

Yeah, while the Falcons has some stars (Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Roddy White, Michael Turner, Tony Gonzales), I'm not sure I'd want to watch any of them on TV either. The back in the day "Dirty Bird" Falcons would be interesting though.

[I-10east]

I never watched Hard Knocks, so someone tell me who were the 'compelling' characters besides of Ochocinco when HK went to Cincinnati?

[duvaldude08]

I never watched Hard Knocks, so someone tell me who were the 'compelling' characters besides of Ochocinco when HK went to Cincinnati?

Hard knocks is about everything EXCEPT football. Its about the drama that goes on within.

[copperfiend]

I never watched Hard Knocks, so someone tell me who were the 'compelling' characters besides of Ochocinco when HK went to Cincinnati?

Or the 2007 Chiefs

[mtraininjax]

Hometown fans rating themselves are always the ones in denial. The Jags are boring in terms of Hollywood appeal. Our owner is low key, the GM hides from the media, and our new coach probably would not get recognized by 3/4 of the season ticket holders, if they were standing next to him at a choke and puke joint.

The only thing to spruce us up was Knighton getting into a fight in a bar, then going outside and threatening to shoot all the people he was fighting with. Please, that happens nightly in NY or Philly. Our fans are also soft compared to those of the Jets, Giants, Patriots, Browns, the old AFL/NFL team fans kick our butts. Most of our fans show up 20 minutes before kickoff instead of tailgating and making the day a holy day of football.

I am thankful the Jags are here, but we're still a young franchise, young team for that matter. Give us some more generations to season and I think we can be as rude and crude as any NFL city.

[copperfiend]

Shad Khan is low key?

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Shad Khan is low key?

Joe Cullen and Mel Tucker wouldn't provide entertainment enough either, I guess.  Have you ever been to a practice, MTrain?  After 2 episodes, those guys would be household names for the HK viewership.

Legendary WR coach.

A rookie QB looking to redeem himself.

MJD.

Mincey the newly re-signed entertainment mogul.

[mtraininjax]

Joe Cullen and Mel Tucker wouldn't provide entertainment enough either, I guess.  Have you ever been to a practice, MTrain?  After 2 episodes, those guys would be household names for the HK viewership. Legendary WR coach. A rookie QB looking to redeem himself. MJD. Mincey the newly re-signed entertainment mogul.

MJD gets enough press on NFL network, last year he was the soundbite for the team. I'll give you MJD as the soul of the team, no one else on a 5-11 team stands out as being a soundbite. Make it an 11-5 team, I am sure we'll have more quotes and good mojo. It has to be by design, its what Gene Smith drafted and dealt for, a quiet team.

The most controversial thing we have had since Jimmy Smith has been the stunts of our fantastic mascot!

[duvaldude08]

Wayne weaver was a timid old man who hid in the office and the franchise run itself. Sad to say but true. Khan is far from low key. Khan is more charismatic than low key.  He's just cool and level headed, but not afraid to be blunt and direct.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

MJD gets enough press on NFL network, last year he was the soundbite for the team.

Actually the best soundbite for the team last year was BG dropping the F bomb on Nat'l TV v/s Houston.  Well, regional TV anyhow.

[ben says]

How did we get HK the first go around??

[I-10east]

With M-train's philosophy, anything progressive that could happen in this town is 'over our heads' and anyone who disagrees with those theories are just a buncha 'local yokel homers' that are in denial; So just to reiterate on the gist of his overall philosophies concerning ANYTHING progressing in Jax, it basically goes like this...."Jax will never get such a great ________ in this city, because there are far more deserving cities such as __________, __________, and _________". Typical negative overreactions, combined with the dreaded inferiority complex. 

[duvaldude08]

MJD gets enough press on NFL network, last year he was the soundbite for the team.

Actually the best soundbite for the team last year was BG dropping the F bomb on Nat'l TV v/s Houston.  Well, regional TV anyhow.

That was funny as hell. And the FX clip of MJD when we played Tampa. He told them" Hey Hey get yo ass out that pile" LMAO its actually very interesting to hear them communicate with each other. We just see them playing. Its alot more goes on than what we see. THATS what makes shows like Hard Knocks interesting for anytime.

[duvaldude08]

One thing I will say is.. The Jags will always have a strong running game. Form day one, our running game has been one of the best. Even back in the 90's, we had an EXTREMELY balanced attack with passing AND running. Cant say much for QB's, but we have produced two of the best running backs the NFL has even seen and I dont think that is going to change anytime soon. We just need an aerial assault to compliment the running game.

[duvaldude08]

We made the wallstreet Journal..in a positive light. Gotta love Khans way of thinking. Doesnt necessairly translate to results on the field, but I am loving they way the handle business. Much more professional than were used to.

New NFL Scouting Test: Meet the Wife
Jacksonville Asks Visiting Free Agents to Bring Their Better Halves; Lunch and a Massage .Article Comments (29) more in NFL | Find New ».Email Print Save ↓ More .
.smaller Larger  By KEVIN CLARK
The process NFL Teams use to evaluate talent is a pressure-packed and grueling one. Right now, as teams look for free agents to fill key holes on their rosters, they're sifting through thousands of pages of scouting reports and dozens of hours of video to find the perfect fit.

There's one team that thinks it has hit on a smart strategy for identifying the best free agents on the market: They look for players with great wives.

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Chad and Brittany Henne
.When NFL receiver Laurent Robinson was starting his free-agent tour last month, he assumed all his visits would be like any other. He'd show up alone, talk to team officials about his playing style and maybe his 40-yard-dash time before discussing contract terms. Then the Jacksonville Jaguars called.

"I never planned to go," said Robinson's wife, Kat. "They asked him to bring me. We've been in the league five years; I never knew of anything like that. They said, 'We want your wife to come.'"

As far back as Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, athlete marriages have mostly been a source of entertainment and scandal. But the top members of Jacksonville's brain trust have drawn a link between good football players and stable marriages. Jaguars general manager Gene Smith said he borrowed the idea from college recruiting, where a parent is always involved, but simply shifted the focus from parents to wives.

Podcast
..Shahid Khan, the Jaguars' new owner, who made his fortune in auto-parts manufacturing, said he had the idea because he tries to meet all of the spouses of his employees. He said he has retreats in which his employees are encouraged to bring their spouses. Khan figured some of the things needed to be a solid playerâ€"like staying after practice or putting in extra workâ€"require a stable home environment. The team's new coach, Mike Mularkey, spoke with Smith about the importance of a good family life during his interview process and just like that, a new NFL personnel theory was born.

"If you're happy at home with your wife at home, I think the energy level is higher," Mularkey said. "It's very important to me...There's a lot that goes with being married. I just believe the happier you are with your wife, the happier you are on the field. I really believe that."

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Laurent and Kat Robinson
.Forget Robinson's 858 receiving yards last year; here's the real value of the former Illinois State star: "I think there's responsibility and accountability," Kat Robinson said of how the marriage benefits her husband's game. "He doesn't go out, we're homebodies, we're both in bed early at night and live a simple life. He even helps out around the house; he does the dishes." Robinson signed a five-year, $32 million deal with the team.

Smith first revealed his philosophy after the team signed Robinson and former Miami Dolphins starting quarterback Chad Henne last month. Henne, a former Michigan star, threw 27 touchdowns in his two full seasons as Miami's starter. But Smith noted that he liked Henne's wife, Brittany, as well as Kat Robinson. "When you get two people in their mid-20s that are married and have wonderful wives, they're kind of like me because I think they were able to over-marry," Smith said just after the signing.

The wives aren't solely there to be evaluatedâ€"they also get a sales pitch. When they first visited Jacksonville, the Jaguars gave both Brittany Henne and Kat Robinson tours of the team's practice facility and training roomsâ€"the first time either said they'd seen one (wives are typically not at team facilities). They went to the beach and to lunch with Mularkey's wife Betsy. The team arranged massages for them at the hotel.

When they landed at the airport, both couples were picked up by Smith and never once talked about football, they say. Henne signed a two-year deal worth around $7 million.

The obvious and unanswered question is whether married athletes really perform better on the field. History is, of course, littered with successful athletes who were spectacularly unsuccessful husbands. And some of them are, or were, among the greatest athletes to play their respective sports.

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Ann and Shahid Khan
.The NFL is a regimented and complicated placeâ€"and a place where personnel mistakes are increasingly costly. If there's any league where there could be a "stability dividend" it's this one.

Brittany Henne said she helps her quarterback husband with studying the playbook and memorizing new hand signals. The Hennes have been dating since junior high. "I really think there [are] a lot of guys that come in single, you are very young and there are lot of women after the money, the fame," Chad Henne said. "They aren't in it for the right reasons. If you have a relationship before you come into the league, it builds your character and you get sustained in the way you live."

Aside from the late-night troublemaking that plagues many sports teams, life in the modern NFL involves dozens of hours per week in extra practice or film sessions. Since the players largely live at home and rarely travel during the season, sleep and discipline are considered must-haves.

Laurent Robinson said marriage helps since "you just have to be places on time and be in certain places and you really have to be alert, just like you would for any installs [of plays] every day." Robinson said he and his wife are expecting their first child in November.

While there hasn't been any serious study about the relationship between marriage and performance in the NFL, the institution clearly seems to help some athletes. The Robinsons have been married for a little over a yearâ€"meaning Laurent's breakout 2011 season was his first as a married man. "I can only speak from personal experience," Smith said. "When my wife came into my life, she made me a better person. I think you start looking at things in a more responsible way and you actually have an intrinsic reason to come home."

While the jury's still out on Jacksonville's marriage test, there's little debate that meeting a player's wife serves another important function: "She's usually a big part of the decision-making process," Smith said.

Write to Kevin Clark at kevin.clark@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared April 13, 2012, on page D12 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: New NFL Scouting Test: Meet the Wife.