Jacksonville, Florida: Potpourri

 It's sometimes hard for me to reconcile that we've been in Jacksonville almost twenty years. What started as a five-year plan for my wife and I turned into a lovely family and two decades of professional and personal immersion in a unique place that certainly feels like home.

In all of that time, I can recall snow flurries (and I'm using that term generously here) in Jacksonville twice. Once, maybe seven or eight years ago, I saw some tiny snow crystals floating lazily on the polar air while jogging in the woods at the University of North Florida. The other instance was more than a decade ago, while playing golf at Windsor Parke. It's the only time I can ever recall quitting golf early due to the cold.

In 1989, Jacksonville had measurable snowfall that stuck on the ground for quite some time. It was such a big deal here in town that MOSH (Jacksonville's Museum of Science and History) still has a small exhibit of that day in their hall covering the city's history.

Florida Times-Union, 1989

Well, as I write this here today in Jacksonville, a storm is barreling toward our city once again. New Orleans is under blizzard warnings (wow...wrap your head around that one!), and we have a winter storm alert here in Jacksonville. That's right--our little hamlet that frequently hits around 105 in August with the heat index might have snow on the ground in the morning.

Sheesh...I'll believe it when I see it, since our low at 7:00 a.m. is only projected to hit 31 degrees before starting to climb again throughout the morning, but I will embrace the unusual weather if it visits. I still love the cold temperatures when we get them, and it would be really fun for the kids to experience some of the weather-related hardships that much of the rest of the country deals with in the winter...

As I write this, I'm also listening to "Jaguars Today," with Mike Dempsey and Tony Smith, on 92.5 FM. It's a great show, with keen reporting on our Jags and lots of fine scrutiny on the roster, organization, and the NFL. The hosts are discussing the Jags' coaching search, and I'll just be honest--the field of candidates in this coaching carousel is simply underwhelming. I don't mind missing out on Ben Johnson because I think he'd have been another Nathaniel Hackett.

We need someone that is authentic, charismatic, tough, fair, and intelligent. We need a communicator that can lead the team from the front and has the toughness (Doug Pederson simply didn't have this quality at the end, it seems to me...) to command respect and discipline from his players. When Aziz Al-Shaair delivered a cheap shot that ended Trevor's season, Dougie P. ran for the hills instead of circling the wagons around his team and his franchise quarterback. 

Mike Tomlin and Mike Vrabel aren't doing that (to name just a few) in a similar situation, and we need a leader that can install a vision and create a culture of toughness and resilience. This team simply rolled over and showed its belly when things got tough in the last year and a half, and we'll need a full roster and front-office overhaul (see ya, Trent) to ever get things moving in the right direction here in town...

So I'm hoping we get two things tonight here in Jacksonville: snow and a package deal of Robert Saleh as head coach and Todd Monken as OC. Let's go, Jags!