“Until there’s a solution to the L.A. market, you’re going to have speculation. I can tell you the Jaguars aren’t one of the teams lining up to go to L.A.”

Thankfully, the Matt Jones news is offset by the statement made by Wayne Weaver this morning on the reported possible sale of the Jaguars.

"In light of news reports from last night, I must once again reiterate the fact that I am not selling the Jaguars. The team is not for sale, and I cannot say it any more clearly than that," Weaver said in the statement. "I’m not going to speculate about the future – whatever happens in the future, the Jaguars will be the Jacksonville Jaguars. The situation is the same as it was last year when I explained that we were looking into refinancing some debt and the possibility of adding investors. We chose not to, but that has always been an option. That is the situation now, as it was then.

You'll have to excuse me for a minute as I celebrate!

...

Ok, Wayne Weaver made it clear that he's dedicated to keeping the Jaguars in the city and that future plans revolve around the Jacksonville part of the Jacksonville Jaguars.  In fact, Weaver may have taken a shot at some of the negitive speculation about the Jaguars with this comment about the investment and excitement he's tried to bring to the team this year:

"The clearest example I can offer which demonstrates my commitment to this team and this city is our offseason activity this year. We extended lucrative contracts to our head coach, our quarterback, and several veteran players. And we spent aggressively in free agency as well. Those are not moves that are made if a team is going to be sold. I don’t know how I can be any stronger in reconfirming my commitment to bringing a championship to Jacksonville. We’re excited and energized about the upcoming season and we want our fans to be as excited as we are,"

The nightmare situation of yesterday turned out to be just another yearly story about how the Jaguars are for sae that ended up being much ado about nothing.  Never am I more happy to be proved a cynical worrier than I am this morning. 

The Jacksonville Jaguars are not for sale and the Weavers intend to keep the team in Jacksonville.  That's good news no matter how deeply you read between the lines.  Yes, the Weavers are looking for minority stakeholders, which will be difficult, but they are not getting out of the NFL game just yet.

This sort of story could be avoided if Wayne Weaver would address the uncertain future of the Jaguars after he retires.  While some owners do hold onto their team deep into their 80's, at 73 it's not the most surprising thing in the world for someone to start planning for retirement.  If the team were to make public some sort of "sucession plan", especially one that seems to assure the team remains in the city, much of this yearly "will they sell, will they move" nonsense would go away.  I realize that it's a personal decison to plan for the future like this, but imagine an offseason where there's no discussion of the Jaguars in LA?  That'd be awfully nice.

On a day where we learned that Matt Jones is officially a complete and total bust and after the fear and loathing of last night, hearing this makes things all better. 

Here's to the JACKSONVILLE Jaguars!

-Chris