MNF, Building Lights, and the National Spotlight

[duvaldude08]

Again, terms like "grow up" and hollow cheerleading completely ignore the economic reality of filling a 65,000 seat stadium in a very small NFL market with a million other entertainment options competing for the same depressed level of discretionary income. We've filled the stadium for a losing team all season. People are fine with losing. The true danger to the franchise's viability in Jacksonville comes when people lose faith that efforts are being made to improve the team. The casual fans need the hope that the team is on the right track and that ownership is committed to spending the money necessary to compete. I'm not hearing much of that around town today. "Suck it up fans" is in no way a practical solution to ensuring the Jags are here for the long run.

I just feel like we have a bunch of whinning fans. IMO we do need to suck it up. A losing team does not equate to a city losing a franchise. As I stated before, every team in the NFL has experience times such as this, and none of them lost their team because they had a long period of losing. Its part of being an NFL fan. There are ups and downs. For us to say they the Jags must always win or the team will move is just STUPID

[RockStar]

Again, terms like "grow up" and hollow cheerleading completely ignore the economic reality of filling a 65,000 seat stadium in a very small NFL market with a million other entertainment options competing for the same depressed level of discretionary income. We've filled the stadium for a losing team all season. People are fine with losing. The true danger to the franchise's viability in Jacksonville comes when people lose faith that efforts are being made to improve the team. The casual fans need the hope that the team is on the right track and that ownership is committed to spending the money necessary to compete. I'm not hearing much of that around town today. "Suck it up fans" is in no way a practical solution to ensuring the Jags are here for the long run.

I just feel like we have a bunch of whinning fans. IMO we do need to suck it up. A losing team does not equate to a city losing a franchise. As I stated before, every team in the NFL has experience times such as this, and none of them lost their team because they had a long period of losing. Its part of being an NFL fan. There are ups and downs. For us to say they the Jags must always win or the team will move is just STUPID

Indeed.

[JHAT76]

I heard ESPN showed a shot of Charlotte, NC skyline during the MNF Show last night..

http://www.sportsgrid.com/nfl/espn-charlotte-skyline-jacksonville/
Also, worst halftime show I've ever seen..  BMX stunts?  Give me a break!!

At one point right before kickoff I swear they had a shot of downtown with MODIS on the building rather than Wells Fargo (Possibly mistaken as I was only half watching at that point).  If anyone recorded it check out around the time before kickoff to right after kickoff.  It was somewhere in there.

[Elwood]

During the pregame, ESPN was using stock footage of Jacksonville, as they do for many locales. Shots of The Landing were obviously old, as well as the "MODIS" shot. It seemed that once the game started that the shots were current.

[I-10east]

Also, worst halftime show I've ever seen..  BMX stunts?  Give me a break!!

I wouldn't get my hopes up too highly concerning a typical regular season halftime show. It's not like some A-list rocker is gonna come out midfield and jam; That's reserved for specialized regular season games, like Thanksgiving or the first regular season game which kicks off the season.

[tufsu1]

well the halftime show at the Ravens MNF game was really cool

[I-10east]

^^^Atleast the BMX show was something different. I guess that it's mandatory for all MNF halftime shows to feature only lasers & fireworks.

[Keith-N-Jax]

I thought it was ok, I like the marching bands though.

[I-10east]

^^^Bethune Cookman definitely had put on a good show during the Saints game halftime.

[duvaldude08]

^^^Bethune Cookman definitely had put on a good show during the Saints game halftime.

Dont even talk about it! I could not make it to the game that day. When I found out they performed, I was beating my self up for staying home. I wasnt having a very good week.

[JaxNative68]

Blane is soft and the rookie db's looked horrible.  finally the offense scores a few points and the decimated defense couldn't stop a high school team - making it another loss in the books.

[acme54321]

The lights downtown looked great tonight.  Wells Fargo is lit in teal, the big "windows" atop BoA seem to be lit differently (brighter?), all of the financial buildings in Brooklyn were fully lit, and both bridges were solid blue.  With all the new projects popping up around the core things are looking up in urban Jax.

[ProjectMaximus]

At one point right before kickoff I swear they had a shot of downtown with MODIS on the building rather than Wells Fargo (Possibly mistaken as I was only half watching at that point).  If anyone recorded it check out around the time before kickoff to right after kickoff.  It was somewhere in there.

According to BCC, you're absolutely right.

http://www.bigcatcountry.com/2011/12/6/2615397/monday-night-football-espn-skyline-error

Edit: Yep, confirmed by ESPN. http://espn.go.com/blog/afcsouth/post/_/id/31551/espn-on-mnf-shots-of-jacksonville

[Wacca Pilatka]

Losing doesn't help matters, but I would argue that cheapness, especially transparent cheapness, has ruined far more goodwill than the losing itself has. Whether it be firing David Garrard on the eve of the new season to save a few million dollars, keeping Del Rio and his proven losing philosophy around three seasons too long to avoid having to pay out his contract, fielding a 90 year old punter who single handedly cost us a win, not even making a pass at any big name free agents, etc.

Other than with Del Rio, I just don't see it. 

1) The Jaguars were one of the bigger spenders in free agency this year.  Posluszny and Session's contracts raised eyebrows with how big they were.
2) The Jaguars historically have rewarded their best performers handsomely.  Jones-Drew, Greg Jones, Lewis all received large extensions.  Some outside NFL commentators found a few of those contracts excessive.
3) What big-name free agents did we fail to pursue?  Weddle?  Landry and Lowery are at least his equal and much cheaper - why pay Weddle big money just for the sake of saying "Look, we spent money!"  Asomugha, since you've mentioned several times that we had a rookie-heavy secondary?  The secondary isn't full of rookies because of Jaguar cheapness, it's full of rookies because four solid players are hurt.  WR is a glaringly obvious weak spot but the free agent WR class was weak.  Ochocinco has been useless and no one bit on Owens or Moss for good reason.  Burress is the only one you could make a real argument about.
4) The Garrard situation was handled horribly in terms of timing, but he clearly wasn't himself in preseason and then proved to be injured.  I don't think that was a cost-saving move, or at least not strictly one.
5) The 90-year-old punter wasn't a move made on the cheap.  The Jags had every intention to sign Podlesh, the Bears waved a lot of money in front of him, and Podlesh didn't give the Jags a chance to match.  Turk was (seemingly) the best fallback option on the market and the Jags gave him $2 million.  The cheap move would have been to keep Brian Saunders, the rookie free agent, and not try to bring in a veteran.
6) Spending a lot of money doesn't necessarily equate to NFL success.  Look at how rarely New England and Pittsburgh typically delve into big-name free agency and how often losing teams like Washington do it.  Also, how are things working out for Philadelphia this year?

[blizz01]

Well, we're on the Yahoo splash screen:

ESPN confuses new Jacksonville with old Jacksonville, and … Charlotte?

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/ESPN-confuses-new-Jacksonville-with-old-Jacksonv?urn=nfl-wp13393