Imagine if HBO Hard Knocks show came to Jacksonville, Florida. We the viewers go behind the scenes to look at the operations of the Jacksonville Jaguar training camp. Head coach invites all the players over to his home in Ponte Vedra for a pool party. Up close profiles of three players: the veteran, the redneck rookie, and the guy who won’t make the team. There’s plenty of football, but plenty of fun as well. Off the field the players go see a country music concert at the Jacksonville Coliseum. Day trip to St. Augustine to visit the Alligator Farm: close-up shot of a wide-eyed young city boy athlete saying “Whoa!” when the big gator comes out. On the way home the team bus stops at Circle K. Everyone gets taped up for the preseason games and pulls on their Jacksonville Jaguars jersey. Who will make the final cut? In the end, a player cries and then takes an Uber to the Jacksonville airport. Your journey will continue, friend—but not here in Jacksonville.
I think people would like to watch the show and if you’re a producer for HBO Hard Knocks, I think you should put Jacksonville on the list on the whiteboard for teams to follow. One thing that could happen is, a homesick rookie is there at training camp and to cheer him up, his girlfriend sends him a Cameo video from Tuna Melts My Heart, the little narcoleptic chihuahua with an overbite. The player laughs so much at Tuna’s funny face that they decide to bring in Tuna for a visit. He shows up wearing a little Jaguars shirt the size of a small dog, then he falls asleep on his back against a dirty towel in the locker room, his legs akimbo. Players huddle around him and chuckle and take pictures for social media, but it’s all in good fun. Tuna’s shriveled neck and prominent snout look weird but people like to see him, whether in Jacksonville or anywhere around the world that gets HBO. It’s hard to dream of a more unlikely odd couple than a big NFL football player and a tiny, toothy Tuna chihuahua, barely the size of an offensive lineman’s foot. But that juxtaposition is what makes great television.
Jaguars win 24-0 vs. Colts.
“Jaguars Junction” is an independent source of football analysis unaffiliated with any professional sports franchise.
