JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As if there hasn't been enough turmoil in the Jacksonville Jaguars organization this season between the hiring then firing of head coach Urban Meyer and a tumultuous 2-14 record with the latest blunder being a 40-point loss to the Patriots, things are about to get wild at TIAA Bank Stadium in Sunday's season finale.
According to Mark Long of the Associated Press, hundreds, maybe even thousands of Jags fans have changed their Twitter avatars to clown emojis ahead of Sunday's game, with a plan in place for many fans to dress in clown attire at the game.
The clown-themed protest is for Jaguars owner Shad Khan, in response to his decision to not fire General Manager Trent Baalke.
Locked On Jaguars podcast host Tony Wiggins already spoke at length last week about why this could a bad move for Jacksonville, because of how the decision to keep Baalke could affect the Jaguars' coaching search.
"It could hurt in two ways," Wiggins said last week in a guest appearance on Locked On's flagship daily podcast, Locked On Today. "One, it'll hurt if they really like a guy and he has multiple options, let's just say Chicago calls and he prefers the GM in Chicago. Chicago's another team with a young quarterback too and that's very attractive job."
"The other place it could hurt is they could come in and make demands and say, look, I need more control and I'm not gonna work for him, he's gonna work for me," he continued. "And that would eliminate them if Shad Khan already has it in his mind that he's going to let Baalke be basically vice president of everything."
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According to multiple reports, Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, Green Bay offensive coordinator Nate Hackett and Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich declined to interview with the Jaguars during the final two weeks of the regular season, leaving many to wonder whether Baalke’s presence was an issue.
Much of the anger from fans with Baalke is that he inherited a team with $100 million in cap space, the No. 1 overall pick and five draft picks among the first 65 selections but the Jags have arguably taken a step back in this year.
On Wednesday's Locked On Today podcast, Wiggins joined the show again to talk about the planned clown protest.
Wiggins said the days of Jaguars fans siding with ownership are over as the clown protest intends to show that.
"The fans have had enough," Wiggins said. "One, they've looked silly taking up for ownership. And two, they want to make ownership look silly for them looking silly for (the fans) taking up with ownership...What they're saying is (Shad Khan) is making clownish decisions."
Khan fired Meyer on Dec. 16. In the three games since, the Jaguars have been outplayed by equally woeful Houston and the New York Jets and then thoroughly embarrassed in a 50-10 loss at the Patriots on Sunday.
Just four years ago, the Jaguars played in the AFC title game.
“I haven’t been around the NFL long so I really still don’t even know how everything completely works, but I’m just trusting who is in leadership positions,” rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence said this week. “At the end of the day, my job is to be a quarterback and to lead this team, and I can only do so much, and that’s what I’m going to do."
The Jaguars face the Colts at home Sunday as the Colts need to win to make the playoffs. However, the Colts have not won in Jacksonville since 2014.
The Associated Press contributed to this report