Redemption and Rebirth | Cheese's Jacksonville Jaguars Franchise

[thesportsguru11]

He's BAAAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKK!

Good to hear from ya, Cheese. Contemplated doing the Jaguars for a long time on M25, loved the uniforms to start, but never ended up doing it. Excited to see what you do!

[Cheese2121]

Quote: Originally Posted by johnstone1987

Great backstory bro! Taking the Jags to a contender is going to be hard considering that Division is an uphill climb. You got Luck in Indy who takes it every year. You got Tennessee with Mariota rebuilding, you got Texans rebuilding and now the Jags. But with Bortles and some solid weapons you should be able to prove haters wrong and at least snag a WC spot come January.

Thanks for checking in man and I really appreciate you following along! I will be starting in the 2014 year so luckily no Mariota for me to worry about but I am certainly not looking forward to having to defend Luck twice a year or getting blitzed constantly by Watt. Hope you continue to follow along and I really appreciate you checking in!

Quote: Originally Posted by djp73

following, always good to see a new cheese project

Happy to have you along as always my friend for the ride. Hope you enjoy!

Quote: Originally Posted by thesportsguru11

He's BAAAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKK! Good to hear from ya, Cheese. Contemplated doing the Jaguars for a long time on M25, loved the uniforms to start, but never ended up doing it. Excited to see what you do!

Good to hear from you again my friend! I am happy to have you following along and hope you enjoy. The Jaguars should be a great challenge and I am really looking forward to building them into a contender. Like you said, I love their uniforms. Hope you enjoy!

[Cheese2121]

Updated: July 17, 2014 11:45 AM

Front office mogul Dan Clayton becomes the new owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars to the tune of approximately $775 million.



The Dawn of a New Era: Business Mogul Dan Clayton Purchases the Jacksonville Jaguars for $775 Million

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By John Clayton
ESPN.com
Archive




Jacksonville, FL – Amid smiles and handshakes, football and business mogul Dan Clayton was unanimously confirmed by the NFL owners as the new owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars franchise.

Clayton becomes the second new owner this year in the NFL after the Pegula family bought the Buffalo Bills. The two new owners were photographed together sharing laughs at the owners meeting. Clayton paid just under $1 billion dollars to purchase complete ownership of the Jaguars franchise. The majority of the team belonged to Shahid Khan who had owned the team since 2011.

“It was time for me to move on with other endeavors and investments in my life. I am confident that Clayton will continue to uphold and build the Jaguars tradition,” said Khan earlier in the week.

Clayton is no stranger to the football world with a long and storied resume. He most recently served as head of football operations for the Buffalo Bills. He has also spent time at the college level as Virginia Tech’s athletic director and the head coach of Eastern Michigan. Clayton is expected to have a heavy role in both financial and football related activities of the Jaguars franchise.

Clayton has a long history of building up programs. His earliest work was with the Buffalo Bills, where in just three seasons he put together a winning record along with bringing home a title. After leaving the Bills organization, Clayton went on to take over the athletic programs at Virginia Tech. There, he enjoyed similar success taking the program to multiple BCS bowl games and victories, while bringing in some of the top recruits in the nation. He is expected to hold an introductory press conference later this week.

Clayton, while spending the majority of his time working within the football industry, made his fortune as a silent majority shareholder in Berkshire-Hathaway managed by Warren Buffet. Forbes estimates Clayton to be worth around $2.7 billion in the latest research.


Dan Clayton's Management Resume:
-Buffalo Bills (24-17) (1 Super Bowl Title) (Madden '10)
-Virginia Tech Hokies (41-5) (NCAA '11)
-Eastern Michigan Eagles (11-10) (NCAA '12)



Information from ESPN.com senior NFL writer John Clayton and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[djp73]

Nice article there, are you starting with 2014?

[Cheese2121]

Monday, July 29 2014

JAGUARS NEW OWNER DAN CLAYTON'S INTRODUCTORY PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

This past week business mogul Dan Clayton became the sole owner and CEO of the Jacksonville Jaguars franchise after purchasing the team for $775 million. Below is the official transcript of the press conference, courtesy of Jaguars.com.

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Clayton: Before I take questions, I want to say a few words. Owning a professional sports team is about winning and the primary goal of my ownership will be to win championships. Winning isn’t just about what takes place on the field, it’s the attitude of the program. There is an old saying that attitude reflects leadership. I will always dedicate myself to bring that to your, our, my Jaguars.

Q: You’ve been a highly successful businessman, and now you own an NFL franchise. What’s the next step for you and this team?

A: Part of being good at business is surrounding yourself with smart people, so that will continue to be priority A. We’ll build a continual winner from the top down.


Q: Do you plan to bring in your own head coach at some point?

A: Well even if I wanted to at this time I wouldn't be able to because of where we're at on the calendar but with that said, I have great respect for Coach Bradley. We both have the same goals for this team and I think that is important. I spoke with him earlier this morning and I think we can work together to do a lot of great things with this program.

Q: Could you talk a little about this team's reputation for poor handling of money and player management in the past?

A: Firstly, I don’t want to speak negatively of any of the actions of the regime that came before me. That being said football is a business. My good friend and the late Ralph Wilson always told me that managing your money was just as important as managing your personnel. I think those two aspects have struggled lately and I will work to correct both of those aspects.

As far as player management, I haven't met with any of the players yet so I can't comment too much on that because I don't speak about people's character that I don't know however I do know that a premium will be placed on getting good, hard working individuals into the locker room. Hard work beats out natural talent any day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

Q: Speaking to personnel, due to recent legal issues, what do you think Justin Blackmon’s future with this team is?

A: I was wondering how long it would take for that name to come up. There is no question that Justin (Blackmon) is one of the most talented young receivers in the game. However, we all are aware of his off the field struggles and issues. That kind of behavior will not be tolerated on this team. We are looking for guys with character and commitment. That being said, this is a fresh start for everyone. Everyone has a clean slate, Justin included.

Q: Is Blake Bortles your starting quarterback?

A: I was waiting for how long it would take before you all started grilling me on starting day lineups (laughter in room). Listen guys, training camp is just getting underway and myself and the coaching staff have a lot of work to do evaluating this team. We don’t even know what the 53-man roster is going to look like just yet.

Q: What is your ultimate vision for the style of team you want?

A: The NFL is an ever-changing league and if you are not willing to adapt you fall behind. The point I am making is I think you have to always be open to adapting your style of play depending on the personnel available. Ultimately I favor a rugged, smash-mouth, power-running approach. If you control the trenches, you control the game.

Q: Any plans to move the franchise from Jacksonville?

A: Absolutely not. This is Jacksonville’s team and this is where we will stay.

Thank you for your time.

[Letalis]

Great articles to start off, can't wait to see where you go with this. You know that I am always following.

Good luck!

[Cheese2121]

Quote: Originally Posted by Letalis

Great articles to start off, can't wait to see where you go with this. You know that I am always following. Good luck!

Thank you my friend. Happy to have you along for another one of my projects! Hope you enjoy!

Quote: Originally Posted by djp73

Nice article there, are you starting with 2014?

Thanks djp! Yep, I thought about it and decided I wanted to start from the very beginning so we will be in the 2014 season.

[Cheese2121]

A Beautiful Mind | Why Dan Clayton is Going to Change the Jaguars



Clayton, the new owner of the Jaguar franchise, is a smooth operator both on and off the field.

Cheese2121 | Columnist from A Slice Off the Old Block


THE MAN SITTING ACROSS from me looks nothing like his former predecessor who use to occupy the owners office at Jaguars headquarter. For so long, I was accustomed to seeing Mr. Khan bustling about the office constantly yelling for advisors. Now the office is quiet as Dan Clayton, dressed in an Armani suit with a simple black tie, is the only one in the office during the fading twilight of a summer Sunday going through a college scouting report. I joke that he is already looking ahead to the next offseason. He smiles and says, “You can never plan too early.” That is the way Clayton has always been, always planning, always working.

“I have never been the smartest in any profession I have been in, but I have made it a habit to outwork people far smarter than me.” At just 39 years old, Clayton is one of the youngest owners of a professional football franchise. Growing up in Virginia, Clayton began investing while working on a bachelor's degree in engineering from Virginia Tech. By the time he had finished up his doctorate degree he had already made his first million.

“Everything comes down to numbers whether it is signing a player to a multi million dollar deal, or just deciding what to charge for a bottle of Pepsi on game day,” Clayton says as he hands me a glass filled with the bubbly soda. “Don’t worry, that one is on the house,” he says with a wink.

Football is a business and no one is more aware of that than Clayton. Despite being one of the NFL’s newest owners, he is also in one of the worst situations instantly. The Jaguars who have been plagued by mediocrity for more than a decade now sit at the bottom of not just the rankings but also the bottom of income and net worth as a franchise. Clayton plans to change both of those things.

New Jaguars owner Dan Clayton is ready to start rebuilding the franchise.

“The mistake people make is they think, ‘oh we just need to rebuild our offense or we just need to fix this.’ There is no quick fix for the problems we are facing, this rebuild, and make no mistake that is what it is, has to include all facets of this organization, if we are to be successful.”

Clayton turns away from a window he is staring out of with a little smile on his face. The kind of slight, wistful knowing smile that makes me feel like he can see something I cannot or knows something that I don’t. “We are going to do it too, just wait and see.”

Clayton was not always so confident when he got into the football world as general manager for the Buffalo Bills under then owner the late Ralph Wilson. “Ralph (Wilson) would call me into his office when I would get real down on myself following a loss or a transaction that didn’t go the way I wanted and he would say ‘Dan, did you do everything you could? Then what are you worrying about. We will get it next time.”

Under the tutelage of Wilson, Clayton sprang up through the management ranks spending time at both the professional and collegiate level as both a coach and a general manager. At this point in his career there is very little the young owner from Virginia hasn’t done.

At his introductory press conference, Clayton faced the Jacksonville reporters and coolly fielded questions regarding his head coach and troubled star wide receiver Justin Blackmon. He is mute on both subjects when I ask him if he would like to comment any further on either subject. He just smiles slightly as he slowly shakes his head from across the desk. He knows it is rebuilding process and he knows how high the pressure is of the job he just bought. Looking at the dreadful roster that Clayton is going through, anyone can see the task ahead is a monumental one. Oddly though I feel relaxed and calm about all of it as I talk with Clayton on this Sunday evening. Remembering back to when Mr. Khan use to run the show, I always left interviews feeling like I had run in a track meet. I had to run at a million miles an hour to keep up with the man as he dragged me along on his lofty visions of the team. As I look across the table at Clayton, I instead feel as if I am playing a calm and calculated game of chess over a glass of brandy. Every move has been analyzed to the last detail, every decision weighed and measured.

As we walk together out of the Jaguars main building we pause briefly to admire the empty trophy case which displays a small placard reserving it for the team’s future Lombardi trophy. Clayton slowly turns his head to me and with that knowing smile says, “I think we are going to have to get a bigger trophy case.” With a smile and wink, he shakes my hand and turns to walk in the other direction in the fading Jacksonville sunlight.