Del Rio: Radio malfunctions tend to happen in New England

[Gwedd]

One of the reasons that the NFL decided to put a team in Jax was because of the large Navy population. There's Jacksonville Naval Air Station that had 6 squadrons of patrol aircraft, plus a intermediate-level maintenance facility, as well as the Navy's replacement airgroup(training squadron) for ALL of it's patrol/ASW assets. In addition there was a Marine detachment and several smaller commands.

Just a few miles down the road is Mayport, which, at the time, had a couple Carrier Battle Groups stationed there, and another Naval Air Station where the airwings flew into and out of when the carriers were in port. Lots of Navy families and retirees there, too, helped to convince the NFL that there would be a static and long-term market for them.

Suckers.......

Shortly after Jax got it's franchise, the BRAC commission closed the Mayport facility, and the planes and carriers all went north to Norfolk. The squadrons at Jax Naval Air Station got down-sized as did some of the commands. Others were eliminated and more than 40% of that whole Navy market moved for places elsewhere.

Ah well.

 

[jmt57]

When you go back to the original tweet from the Jags' reporter in my opinion it is not clear if Del Rio made that comment ("that tends to happen in New England") yesterday, or if she is referring to a comment Del Rio made four years ago.

Twitter/taniaganguli : They practiced having ...

They practiced having communication go out during the scrimmage. Jack Del Rio said that tends to happen in New England #jaguars #patriots

I just asked her to clarify whether or not Del Rio said that yesterday; I'll have to wait and see if she responds.

I never did get a response from the Jacksonville reporter.

But based on this (see below) I'm thinking she was referring to the comment he made four years ago. If Del Rio felt so strongly about Belichick to make that statement again this week then I doubt he would have attempted to have joint practices with the Pats.

Jack Del Rio spoke with Patriots coach Bill Belichick about joint camp practice, Jaguars will host Atlanta next week | jacksonville.com

Last year it seemed like joint training camp practices were the wave of the future.

The work stoppage seems to have put a bit of a damper on that, but the Jaguars will still host the Atlanta Falcons next week for one Wednesday-night practice. Last year the Jaguars spent two days in Flowery Branch, Ga., practicing with the Falcons.

Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio mentioned today he actually reached out to Patriots coach Bill Belichick this offseason about a similar arrangement before the teams played.

"We talked about it, and he mentioned that with all the uncertainty and that we needed to just work your own guys that first time, and maybe not this year," Del Rio said. "So it never worked out."



On a side note, several Jacksonville regulars will not play Thursday. RB Maurice Jones-Drew and DE Aaron Kampman are both coming off knee surgeries and will not make the trip. QB David Garrard will make the trip but won't play due to a back injury. Backup QB will start even though he's been wearing a knee brace this week; Luke McCown is the backup. The Jags just re-signed QB Todd Bouman but he is unlikely to play. TE Marcedes Lewis will make the trip but is also not expected to play.

 

[Joker]

Jack DelRio is having reception problems on the ray-dee-oh? Nah...can't be...just ask his pet Jag-u-harharhar...