As the Jacksonville Jaguars head into their 18th season against Kansas City at home this week, the best advice for fans is "patience."
I understand that most fans probably think they've endured five years of pain, capped by last year's 2-14 season.
It seems like so long ago since the Jaguars won two division titles and went to the playoffs six times. The last time the Jags were in a post-season game was 2007.
The great memories of Mark Brunell, Tony Boselli and Tom Coughlin are still there, but they don't seem to count, except to remind us that the Jaguars have won before.
Fans want success again. Now.
Patience, fans.
From all appearances, owner Shad Khan is building an organization with a different culture filled with new faces and different ideas about what it takes to win.
When Khan unloaded General Manager Gene Smith and turned to Dave Caldwell, it was his first shot at changing the organization. Caldwell has never been a general manager before, but he has been taught by some of the NFL's best.
New head coach Gus Bradley is also a first timer.
So, in a way, with Khan, Caldwell and Bradley, the Jags are being led by three rookies.
Patience, fans.
A question mark remains at quarterback, where Blaine Gabbert has won the nod over Chad Henne.
In the NFL, we all know you don't win a lot of games without a franchise quarterback.
Caldwell and Bradley have given Gabbert this season to prove he's the guy.
Patience, fans.
There is every indication that Caldwell and Bradley view the upcoming season as 16 games to evaluate talent and decide who to keep and who to dump going into the 2014 season.
This year is more about next year.
The question mark doesn't just hover over the quarterback position. It's a cloud that covers multiple positions.
Patience, fans.
But, this doesn't mean the team will lack excitement.
Running back Maurice Jones-Drew is back after missing the final 10 games in 2012. If he's in 2011 form, watch out.
Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but a lot of folks think Cecil Shorts is the team's best receiver since Jimmy Smith and Kennan McCardell. Last year, Shorts had seven touchdowns and almost 1,000 yards receiving.
If receiver Justin Blackmon gets his off-the-field act together and lives up to his first-round draft potential, Gabbert will have a real pair of offensive weapons.
And, while they're far from proven commodities, some rookies show every sign of being significant playmakers and potential game changers.
As for me, I can't wait until that first kickoff on Sept. 8 in EverBank Field when Andy Reid, who was coach of the Eagles when they played in the Super Bowl here in 2005, brings his Kansas City Chiefs to town.
I'm ready for some football.
Patience? I'll keep practicing.
No rookie performance for finance panel chair
Speaking of rookies, a lot of folks paying attention to the City Council budget process think Finance Committee chairman Greg Anderson, a first termer, is doing a veteran job under some very difficult circumstances.
Anderson and most council members decided early on they weren't going to accept Mayor Alvin Brown's budget of massive service cuts and no new revenue.
That basically left it up to Anderson, an EverBank executive, and the Finance Committee to rebuild the city's budget for 2013-14 almost from scratch.
Anderson and his committee members have spent hour after hour dissecting Brown's budget department by department, often line by line.
Anderson's leadership has been personable, sometimes witty as well as incisive and inclusive.
At the beginning of the committee's Aug. 23 meeting, Anderson said he was pleased so far with the process.
"The budget is an excellent product and reflective of the needs of this community," said Anderson.
There's no doubt we are going to see a property tax increase when it's all said and done. We can take some comfort by the way the Finance Committee has gone about its business.
Public defender's issues under examination
The uproar surrounding Public Defender Matt Shirk and the alleged unusual activities that are being reported about his office makes it pretty difficult to ignore the situation.
Before first reported by The Florida Times-Union, there was a lot of conversation, especially in the legal community, about something gone terribly wrong in Shirk's office.
The stories, whether true or not, are the kind of stuff that can turn employee morale upside down, interrupt the normal work process of an office and challenge a family.
Given that Shirk, who is not talking publicly, posted an apology to his wife on his Facebook page, there is reason to believe there may be fire behind this smoke.
One of Shirk's accusers, former investigator A.L. Kelly, is highly respected in courthouse and law enforcement circles. He's well connected and the general sense is that Kelly would not speak up without good reason.
He resigned July 15.
"My principles wouldn't let me stay there. I could not deal with those folks (the Shirk administration) mistreating people and destroying their lives the way they did. And those three young ladies' lives, it will affect them and their self-esteem for the rest of their lives," Kelly told the Times-Union.
The story continued to grow when State Attorney Angela Corey asked Gov. Rick Scott to assign a special prosecutor to investigate the goings on in Shirk's office.
The governor picked veteran Gainesville prosecutor Bill Cervone of the 8th Judicial Circuit to investigate for "potential prosecution and all matters related to allegations of public records laws violations and any related misconduct."
Cervone will start immediately and will have up to one year to see what he can find.
And, the Public Defender's Office enlisted Bill Scheu and other members of the Rogers Towers law firm to help sort though public records requests.
Scheu has a strong team with former City General Counsel Fred Franklin, Wyman Duggan, Lori Patterson and Joshua Woolsey.
The Dalton Agency's Michael Munz will also work with Scheu.
Don't expect this to go away any time soon. The Times-Union, which fired the first shot and is leading the media charge, is not about to lose its focus.
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