Open Letter to Peter King and other National Media (probably see a few more of these from others)
by Joe Fisher on Dec 3, 2011 8:35 AM EST
Email
PrintHere's something I wrote to Peter King after yet another back-handed shot at Jacksonville as it relates to the Jaguars and the new owner's commitment to it. Crap is getting old from these hacks.
I doubt you'll answer or even read this and that's fine. Simple question. Why do you and other members of the national media take every opportunity to bash the Jaguars, specifically Jacksonville? Do you get some sort of satisfaction by trashing Jacksonville and hoping you all are right? Bitter about your experience here during Super Bowl 39 and can’t let it go? (Can't wait to see how they enjoy Indianapolis and the weather there. Big difference between Final 4s and the Super Bowl. It's like camping out at the Daytona 500 vs. attending the Monaco Grand Prix)
Are blackouts solely a Jacksonville problem? Not since 2009. Meanwhile, a fact many of you and your fellow scribes conveniently overlook is that Oakland has had over 65% of their home games blacked out since 1995, fittingly, Jacksonville's first season in the NFL. Tampa has had most of their home games blacked out since 2010. Stephen Ross in Miami purchases a healthy number of seats for $.32 on the dollar, even resorting to Tim Tebow Day when Miami played the Broncos earlier this year. The Vikings nearly had their first blackout in 14 years this week (against the Denver Tebows of all teams) and other teams have had them over the past few years, such as San Diego, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Detroit, Arizona, and Kansas City. The attendance numbers are out there for everyone to see, and it turns out Jacksonville is not that bad. But it takes research and who needs research when you have low hanging fruit and an easy story? How come Cincinnati can get away with the excuse of “Mike Brown has ruined this franchise for so long that we've earned the right to be skeptical and not show up” or Tampa can ride the high unemployment excuse when Jacksonville has a similar unemployment number? We’re not allowed to use the excuses, but the fact of the matter is, this team has been mediocre since 2000 when we lost the AFC Championship to Tennessee. Perhaps we were spoiled by success too early, and everything from the owner down grew stale. Can you name another team that has a ticket gauge on its official website? Perhaps we’re victims of our transparency in this regard. Surely you remember the early 1980s when Jacksonville was the flavor of the day for relocation. I recall a handful of teams that flirted with Jacksonville in order to get better stadiums or concession splits. (Of coruse most Jacksonville residents here since the 80s recall Irsay and the helicopter at the Gator Bowl)
I also noticed your 33% of seats tarped comment. Surely you realize that even with the tarps, Everbank Field has more seats than Chicago, Indy, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Cincy, Minnesota and a few others. We rank 21st of 32 teams, Peter. Expanded to college capacity, the stadium seats 84K. Pretty big stadium for a small market, huh? Once again, research. 9,703 seats are tarped by the way.
Am I naïve to not get that everything has a price? No. No matter who Weaver sold the team to, even if it was a relative, you all would still be on the Jaguars to LA or London or whatever city loses their team first train. It’s tiring. If we stick up for our team, we’re labeled thin-skinned rednecks. If we do not reply, then our apathy matches the perceived low attendance numbers. Apparently you and others forgot the 90s here when this was a tough ticket. And of course in the wake of Khan purchasing the team, does the national media report the groundswell of support by way of t shirts, fans giving away fake moustaches, and a very active Twitter following? No. Of course not. They focus on the ignorant racist calling into local radio and on the message boards with abhorrent comments about Mr. Khan’s nationality and perceived religion. Sickening by the way. Of course these folks don’t realize that without Mr. Khan, the bumpers on their pickup trucks would have rusted away long ago.
Bottom line, I’m part of the 2nd generation of Jaguars fans. Our numbers are growing. In the span of 1 year, Jacksonville has elected its first African American mayor, has its first African American interim head coach, and now has a Pakistani American owner. Please take a minute to appreciate the magnitude of this paradigm shift going on in Northeast Florida. And yet, members of the national media want to throw cold water on it all.
I’ve always respected your viewpoints and am a fan of your work, but you’re resorting to lazy journalism as if you work for ESPN. What do you all have to gain? If LA wanted football they’d have built better stadia to keep it there instead of playing in a baseball park as the Rams did when they moved from the Coliseum to Anaheim.
59 comments
|
25 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Good letter
"HULU: An evil plot to destroy the world. Enjoy"
"I find your lack of faith...Disturbing" - Darth Vader
"Just Win, baby!"
by TheTealDeal on Dec 2, 2011 3:22 PM EST via mobile reply actions
WOW!!!
Not too scathing, but just enough raw emotion in there to get your point across. To be honest, I am relatively ignorant fan just living in NY and liking this team. I am now much better informed and I thank you for that.
I hope he reads this and gets back to you.
Thanks
I doubt he will. Not enough shock value. And by the way, Everbank only has 13% of the seats covered with tarps, not 33%. It’s the difference between a venti caramel macchiato and a grande caramel macchiato.
You are banned from Stampede Blue.
You can browse the blog, but you can't participate.
I don't think you took me seriously. If you want it unbanned, email an admin. But, for now, your Stampede Blue privileges are done.
I’m on other sites with fans that share our passion and have the ability to put them together as well as you did. He’ll respond, probably with a gay-assed tweet, but just know, the word is spreading. We’re not taking this lying down. The passion for the jacksonville jaguars has been stirred again and we’re about to let the nation know.
Great letter.
Please update us on any response from him, or to anyone else you sent this letter as well.
by Jags24_7 on Dec 2, 2011 3:32 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Monday Night
Hope we fill the statium for monday night to silence the misinformed national media. I will be in attendance, with two other friends that I bought tickets for. If the team is going down (i.e. moving), then its going down with me fighting for it.
I really don't think it is moving
I mean look at the sale of the team. Can you name a single writer anywhere in the world who predicted Khan? The people they predicted were Fred Smith, Ed Roski, Anschutz. No one at all predicted Khan. They all predicted a sale because Wayne Weaver SAID he would eventually sell the team and had no succession plan in place and has said this for several years.
I just cannot believe a very distinctive looking fellow like Khan was able to avoid detection. Surely this wasn’t all done over Skype. I mean there are websites that track university planes and destinations like the one that said a Penn State plane was flying to Indy today, presumably to talk to Jim Caldwell.
You are banned from Stampede Blue.
You can browse the blog, but you can't participate.
I don't think you took me seriously. If you want it unbanned, email an admin. But, for now, your Stampede Blue privileges are done.
The team will not move
Even the more balanced minds at ESPN say so. They say it’s between the Chargers, Raiders and Rams right now. And local ESPN LA says it’s probably the Chargers; they have an out in their lease at the end of the season.
"Prepare yourself, you know it's a must, you've gotta have a friend in Jesus." -Norm Greenbaum
it's not necessarily an "out" in the lease
It just gets a lot more affordable. Every year the cost to break the lease goes down dramatically as long as there is not a new stadium deal in place.
Good job Joe. This deserves to be FPed ASAP
"Sad fact about our generation: Most ppl would rather hear "you look good" than "you are good". We spend thousands a year on cars, clothes, & cosmetics; Forget that. I can give you a Bible for free. Save money, save your soul. Get right with the Savior, Jesus Christ."- Travis D. Holmes
Very nice letter!
I doubt he addresses you though. It’s easier to write lies about our city and bash the people who live here. F*^k the media!
Excellent letter Joe
Respect My Authoritah
by duuuvaaalll on Dec 2, 2011 5:49 PM EST via mobile reply actions
I demand
This gets some “around the net” links on ESPN.
Respectful critique
I like the content and appreciate the passion for our team and city. To make a more impactful statement however, please be mindful of your grammar. If we’re going to take the national media to task, we must be on par with their writing skill.
by Blahblahblahjaguars on Dec 3, 2011 9:32 AM EST via mobile reply actions
thanks.
Aside from the content before the jump can you give examples? My goal was not to introduce a bill to the Senate or prepare a brief for the Admiral, it was to send something as respectful as I could to a sportswriter who apparently has little respect for our fanbase.
Have you read any of the MMQB letters to Peter King? Not bragging, but I think this stacks up pretty well.
You are banned from Stampede Blue.
You can browse the blog, but you can't participate.
I don't think you took me seriously. If you want it unbanned, email an admin. But, for now, your Stampede Blue privileges are done.
Awesome letter.
It is weird that we have such a liberal media but they never once said how Khan is the first minority to own a team
I think it has to do with location
We still catch hell for playing Sweet Home Alabama at home games. Never mind that the band was one of the first things to put Jax on the international map. Jacksonville will always be known as a typical Southern town. The story they want to write is one of the intolerance of a few in the community speaking for the other 98%.
I have this crazy notion that Khan can become our Robert Kraft or Arthur Blank.
You are banned from Stampede Blue.
You can browse the blog, but you can't participate.
I don't think you took me seriously. If you want it unbanned, email an admin. But, for now, your Stampede Blue privileges are done.
I stand corrected.
I read it a second time and I stand corrected. I forgot “stadium” is actually spelled stadia and the rules of grammar were suspended in 1998. I apologize for reading this open letter to Peter King and the national media incorrectly. My bad.
by Blahblahblahjaguars on Dec 3, 2011 9:58 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
no sweat man. I appreciate that you took the time to read it. Cheers!
You are banned from Stampede Blue.
You can browse the blog, but you can't participate.
I don't think you took me seriously. If you want it unbanned, email an admin. But, for now, your Stampede Blue privileges are done.
Another Open Letter, Another Message Board
I can’t take credit for this one either, but it seems as though Peter’s in-box should be full of letters from the River City this week. We’ll see on Sunday Night.
Just had to send an enormous e-mail to Peter King after he lied and said we tarp 1/3 of our seats, which is not an isolated incident with respect to his lying about the city:
I am deeply disappointed in your constant misinformation and misleading comments about Jacksonville. The latest is your televised remark that Jacksonville tarps 1/3 of its seats. It actually tarps about 10,000, reducing the seating capacity to 67,246, still about 20th or 21st in the league.
This is not an isolated incident, given your earlier comments calling the city “Hartford with palm trees,” cheerfully claiming that “London Jaguars has a nice ring to it.” You’ve also that the annual Florida-Georgia game’s success proves that Jacksonville is merely a college town, the tenor of the remarks absurdly suggesting that all of the tickets to that game are sold in Jacksonville when the game draws an enormous influx of out-of-town Gator and Bulldog fans.
As a Jaguars fan I am perpetually confronted with people who make the presumption that the team has apathetic fans and ranks last in the league in attendance, and is on the cusp of moving. Even in the Jaguars’ worst ticket sales year of 2009 – when you were making London Jaguars jokes while going out of your way to defend Detroit’s even worse sales – they didn’t rank last. This is because the media goes out of its way to make cracks about Jacksonville’s fan support and to insult the city gratuitously. Never mind if other teams are experiencing worse ticket sales situations – the microscope always focuses on Jacksonville and the perception is damaging to the city’s national image. After Jacksonville vastly increased its ticket sales and season ticket holder base after the 2009 season, instead of focusing on this feel-good story of community togetherness and pride, you’ve all just continued to batten down on Jacksonville with abandon. I don’t know if it’s because you want the opportunities for free vacations to locales you consider more exotic like London and Los Angeles, but your obsession with picking on the city is unseemly at best, mendacious at worst.
I’ve also no clue what you’re referring to with respect to “another national TV embarrassment staring at the Jags.” When have the Jaguars ever had poor attendance for a nationally televised game? It’s never happened, not even in 2009. It’s yet another example of your playing fast and loose with the facts. I’m sure if those 10,000 tickets sell this week, you’ll ignore it. It doesn’t fit your narrative of an apathetic fan base. Cincinnati and Arizona never took this kind of abuse and constant L.A. speculation as they struggled to get their stadiums half filled for years.
I don’t live in Jacksonville but I regularly visit there, hold season tickets, and attend games. I see the passion that its fans have. I see what the team means to the city and its pride and national image. I see what the Jaguars contribute to charities in their community. I wouldn’t deny that they could be doing better in terms of ticket sales (though you seemingly ignore the dramatic comeback from 2009 or the fact that many other franchises currently are, or once were, in worse circumstances; the Jaguars’ season ticket holder base never depleted to the level the Patriots were at pre-Parcells, for instance). But you deliberately paint a false picture of the situation. What the hell do you have to gain by this city’s move, beyond the selfish motive of cavorting in a more glamorous locale? Why relentlessly promote the idea of a move – using blatant falsehoods in doing so – that would break the hearts of tens of thousands of people, threaten jobs, and permanently tarnish the image of a city? Does that make you feel good about yourself? Do you ever consider those consequences? I wish you would, and I wish you would show some more journalistic integrity when you report on Jacksonville.
You know he withdrew the statement over twitter, right?
Twitter: BLByline Youtube: BLByline
I'm willing to drink the Kool-ade, but I'm hungry for the truth.
by Brian Levenson on Dec 5, 2011 9:42 AM EST up reply actions
What statement?
Good game homie.....Please don't leave Dwight, and Otis don't trade JJ
by tiquanunderwear on Dec 5, 2011 9:59 AM EST up reply actions
I would also like to write a letter to Brian Billick
After that little shot he took about being a coaching option in Jacksonville. Well guess what Brian? The Jaguars want a GREAT coach and someone whos up-and-coming, and your NEITHER!!!!
by Jags85 on Dec 3, 2011 10:53 AM EST via mobile reply actions 1 recs
Peter King email
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/writers/peter_king/archive/index.html
At the top of the page you will see a link to email him. You’ll have to fill in your name, hometown, and email address.
Tony Boselli was pimping this article on Twitter
Follow me on Twitter
by Adam Stites on Dec 3, 2011 1:04 PM EST reply actions 4 recs
Its a good letter.
The important thing here is that you do not resort to childish insults that would only give King ammunition to use. If these letters are going to help then they need to be like yours and Tonyinjax if they we to ever get any R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Another interesting point is that you state facts about the percentage of seats covered. This is information that I am guessing you got from the internet or some other media source. Why is it so difficult for these so called professional media persons who have a staff working for them (who spell check the work) to get their fact right? Well done.
Great Letter
Those are all things I have to say living in San Francisco.Those big media guys keep pumping up the jags moving.When they are not going anywhere.And none fans of the jags only know what those guys say.But niner fans forget their team is ring to santa clara.
Well Put
yeah, okay, at heart I’m a Chiefs fan (so I understand hardship years) but live in Savannah so my husband and I watch the Jags every Sunday. We’ve been cheering for this team for the last four years and want the Jags to stay put. But, there were things in this that I hadn’t even realized…like just how effing big your stadium is! WOW! I can see why there might be some tarps, that’s freaking huge!
Anyways, great post. I hope the Jags stay put and we can continue to cheer for them on Sunday as well. And trust me, I get the media crap…the Chiefs are ragged on pretty hard core. Keep the faith and good luck Monday night!!!
Thanks
And maybe you could buy a few Jags shirts or something, keep it going
Good game homie
by tiquanunderwear on Dec 3, 2011 4:45 PM EST up reply actions
There's a reason...
Everbank Field is larger than most (and much larger than normal for the market size). Remember, the stadium used to be called the Gator Bowl. The Florida-Georgia game is still often played there, and the Gator Bowl game is still played there each year. These college games draw large crowds and require a stadium that seats more people than a small to medium market area will fill. The number of seats that have to be sold is based on the size of the market. Since there are a lot more seats in the stadium than what is reasonable, the league allows for more seats to be covered. It’s the seats available number that is important, really, not the seats covered number. It just gets more attention saying a larger number of seats are covered.
by Prince Ly Squisher on Dec 4, 2011 1:27 AM EST up reply actions
Fantastic Letter, Joe!
Everyone’s already said it, but great tone – just enough indignation without any lost composure. It’d be nice to think that these guys looking down their noses at this city might actually read with an open mind.
Brilliant Letter!
I live near Cincinnati, and they always use the Mike Brown excuse!
Jennings at the 30, at the 20, at the 10. TOUCHDOWN RASHAD JENNINGS!!
Excellent Letter
Ditto on all the above comments. Unfortunately I doubt Peter will respond to your letter; because it contains FACTS. Much too inconvenient for him.
R.I.P. 2011
Viva 2012!
by JaGirl on Dec 3, 2011 9:42 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Don't teach me how to Deji
Good game homie
by tiquanunderwear on Dec 3, 2011 10:43 PM EST up reply actions
Great Letter
Was watching the nfl today show and tgey stated Jacksonville has no chance of moving anywhere due to our lease and the fact 3 other teams have much worst issues then us the teams mentioned wee the St. Louis Rams, Minnesota Vikings and the San Diego Chargers . Peter King better get his facts right
Remenber it is not who you are , but what you do that defines you. GO JAGS
Great letter Joe!
It’s important to keep on people such as King, who have such a large reader following, to tell the truth and, as you said, not resort to lazy journalism
"Viva los Zapatistas y la Revolucion"
recs on recs on recs
Good game homie
by tiquanunderwear on Dec 4, 2011 9:35 PM EST reply actions 2 recs
Great job
Too bad it most likely fell on deaf ears. But as long as we have passionate fans like you, there won’t be anything to worry about.
You can't reason with unreasonable people.
If you ain't first, you're last.
seems someone has taken the baton, but looks very similar to what I wrote...
http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/401949/garry-smits/2011-12-09/why-attacks-jacksonville
You are banned from Stampede Blue.
You can browse the blog, but you can't participate.
I don't think you took me seriously. If you want it unbanned, email an admin. But, for now, your Stampede Blue privileges are done.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
In Association With
Shutdown Corner - NFL - Yahoo! Sports
- Adrian Peterson blows teammates away in footraces; appears to be on the mend
- UPDATE: Charlie Sheen didn’t buy Lawrence Taylor’s Super Bowl ring
- Alex Smith gets blown up by Jon Beason over Cam Newton comments
- Having finally landed, Kellen Winslow looks for a fresh start in Seattle
- Tim Tebow teased with chants of ‘Lolo!’ in Jets locker room
