The Jacksonville Jaguars may be a hot item after Sunday’s 22-16 win over Kansas City but they can’ take advantage of it at the ticket window — the team won’t be back in Alltel Stadium until Nov. 14.
It’s the annual midseason vanishing act due to preparations for the Oct. 30 Georgia-Florida football game followed by the Nov. 3-14 Greater Jacksonville Agricultural Fair. The contract with the Jaguars may be liberal, but it gives precedence to the Georgia-Florida game and the Fair.
The additional seats needed to give the Georgia-Florida game the contractual number of about 82,000 will start being installed this week with about 6,000 seats being erected in a bleacher-type configuration above the South end zone.
Then comes the Fair, which covers much of the west parking lots with its Ferris Wheel and other thrills.
The next home game is Nov. 14 against Detroit. In the interim, the team plays at Indianapolis this Sunday, then at Houston. The annual open date is Nov. 7.
American football is big on Denmark television and 50 Danes were at Alltel Stadium Sunday to drink up the atmosphere and, yes, the cold beer.
A tour organized by the nation’s largest television channel gave the visitors a fast-paced tour of Florida that included the Jaguars-Kansas City game.
“We arrived in Orlando Thursday, spent the last two days in theme parks and seeing the sights, and then we came here,” said Klaus Emming, one of TV 2’s announcers. “Danes love Florida at this time of year. The weather is ghastly back home.”
Emming’s station carries NFL games each week — Sunday’s game was live back home — and he says the broadcasts generate more e-mail than any other program. “We have 5 million people in Denmark and we got 23,000 e-mails last year. Incredible interest,” he said. “Almost every Dane is fluent in English. We feel very close to America.”
One e-mail asked why the station didn’t organize a trip to see a game in America.
“Not a bad idea,” said Emming, “so we did some research.”
A Danish sports legend is Morten Andersen, who has kicked for numerous NFL teams and who was with Kansas City last year. Emming reviewed the schedule, talked to travel agents and determined the best trip would be to Jacksonville to see the Chiefs with a visit to Europe’s home-away-from-home, Orlando. The bonus would be a visit with Andersen after the game.
With the help of the Super Bowl Host Committee, it all came together.
“Orlando was great, said Emming. The theme parks were hospitable and the social life was better.”
They’ll be remembered down there. “We drank the hotel bar dry both nights,” said Emming. “Dry. Nothing left.”
The Danes rode a bus to Jacksonville early Sunday and enjoyed the sun in Section 222, high above the North end zone. They also enjoyed the Bud Lights and, by the third quarter, some faces were as rosy as the red souvenir shirts they wore.
Alas, there was one thing missing: Morten Andersen. Between the time the trip was booked and the start of the season, the kicker was booted by the Chiefs in favor of a younger leg who, incidentally, caused a problem for the Chiefs by missing an extra point and a field goal in the fourth quarter.
Anyone know any Danes?
The Jaguars didn’t, but Super Bowl Host Committee President Michael Kelly was happy to visit with the guests after the game.
The Chiefs, feeling some responsibility after promising Andersen and then cutting him, trotted out defensive lineman Will Shields, who’s married to a Dane. She wasn’t at the game but the visitors still got to meet an NFL player who at least knew the approximate location of their home nation.
They also got to see Andersen, if only on TV. When they returned to Orlando and the hotel bar, Andersen’s new team, the Minnesota Vikings, was playing the Sunday night game.
Jaguars/Bush stickers were being given out before the game by Republican workers. No sign of Jaguars/Kerry stickers . . . Jag running back Fred Taylor on the team’s 4-2 record, which started with three wins, then two losses, then Sunday’s win. “We’re a roller-coaster team,” he said. “We need to get a little more steady” . . . Jag quarterback Byron Leftwich was the game’s hero after leading the final drive and emerged on crutches with a sore foot and other bruises. “I hurt all over,” he said. “I’ll be OK next week.” He’ll have an in-depth valuation today.
— by Fred Seely