The 1996 Jacksonville Jaguars: The Bold New Team of the South

The 1996 Jacksonville Jaguars are far from the greatest team of all time.

They aren’t even the best team in franchise history.

So why is this team my favorite? Because no other team has ever galvanized the city of Jacksonville like this one did.

The 1996 Jacksonville Jaguars weren’t expected to do a lot that season, and it showed early on. After an opening day beating of the then-division rival Pittsburgh Steelers, the Jaguars promptly lost their next three games and six of eight overall.

They hardly looked like a playoff team when they limped into the bye week at 3-6.

Now, in the previous season, the Jaguars were an expansion team and had finished with a 4-12 record, respectable as far as expansion teams go, but not good enough for the city of Jacksonville.

Jacksonville has always been a football city. The Florida-Georgia game, the Gator Bowl, the World Football League and the USFL have called Jacksonville home at one point or another since 1915. The people of Jacksonville crave football, and they crave winners even more.

So, after the bye week, and a win against Baltimore; the Jaguars headed to Pittsburgh for another matchup with the Steelers. Pittsburgh had been embarrassed in Week One, and they returned the favor in a big way. The Jaguars managed only three points on the day to go along with four turnovers, and Mark Brunell was sacked five times.

The Pittsburgh game proved to be a turning point for the team. They started believing in each other as a team, and the team started winning. They beat Baltimore for the second time in three weeks, followed by wins over Cincinnati and Houston (both of which had beaten Jacksonville earlier in the year).

The Jaguars then beat Seattle on a Sunday night game, and all that stood between them and the playoffs were the 3-12 Atlanta Falcons. The vibe around town was that there was no way that Atlanta was going to keep the Jaguars out of the playoffs.

It looked that way for most of the afternoon, as the Jaguars held the lead the entire game. Craig ‘Ironhead’ Heyward pulled the Falcons to within two, and the Falcons had a chance to win once Morten Anderson came on to the field to try a 30-yard field goal.

With the entire city holding its breath, Anderson slipped a little on the field goal attempt, pushing the ball just left of the upright and pushed the Jaguars into the playoffs. To say there was pandemonium would be an understatement. Big Cat fever had sunk its claws into Jacksonville for good.

As the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoffs, the Jaguars weren’t going to have a home playoff game; and they drew the Buffalo Bills in the first round. It was the Bills’ aging dynasty against the expansion upstarts. No one outside of Jacksonville gave them much of a chance.

Bills running back Thurman Thomas claimed he didn’t know of anyone who actually played for the Jaguars.

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