A long time ago, the Kansas 2A boys basketball tournament arrived on the Kansas State campus and I was a student covering it for The Topeka Capital-Journal. It was a really long time ago.
The small-school team — I think it was Jackson Heights, but the Interweb didn’t produce definitive data — won their quarterfinal game and the coach was giddy about the win and what it meant for the next round.
“Now we get to stay in a hotel!” the coach said. “Hot damn, the farm boys are coming to the big city!”
The population of Manhattan that year was about 37,000.
It was an all-time quote, one that came front-of-mind this week as the Jacksonville Jaguars prepared for their trip to Denver to face the Broncos for the second time in 10 months.
Plucky little start-up
who has never reached the Super Bowl (Jaguars) vs. established blue blood with three Super Bowl trophies (Broncos).
On-the-rise-but-still-unheralded coach (Liam Coen) against championship-winning coach who is the darling of the national media (Sean Payton).
And ….
Small market team (Jaguars) vs. big market team (Broncos).
Hot damn, the Jaguars will fly in a jumbo jet (old-school 747) and get to stay in a nice hotel.
Look out Denver, here come the “smaller market” farm boys from Jacksonville!
Rallying around Payton’s comment
This amusing narrative (amusing to me, infuriating to some Jaguars fans) started innocuously last December ahead of the Jaguars-Broncos.
The Jaguars were 10-4 and on a five-game heater, but under the radar. Three of those wins were against teams who would hire new coaches in the offseason (Arizona, Las Vegas and Tennessee).
Asked about the Jaguars, Payton told reporters: “As you look at them and you watch the tape, it’s a smaller market, but you see a real good team.”
Well, that’s all Coen needed.
Well, that’s all Jaguars fans needed.
How dare Payton talk about your city that way!
How dare Payton talk about your team that way!
The horror! The outrage! The disrespect!
However clumsily it was delivered, I got the point of Payton’s comment: The Jaguars hadn’t played on primetime national television, but they are a very impressive team. The casual NFL fan may not know much about Coen’s crew, but they should. Gamesmanship is a hobby for Payton, but not in this case.
I didn’t really think much of it. Heck, I didn’t think anything of it.
Coen did, though.
The Jaguars beat Denver 34-20, ending the Broncos’ 11-game winning streak. It was thorough. It was impressive. It was eye-popping.
After the game, I lobbed a table-setting question to Coen about the complete nature of the win.
“Great team effort,” he said.
And then …
“Just thankful that a small-market team like us can come into a place like Mile High and get it done,” Coen added.
Hooboy!
I asked if that was really a rallying cry.
“You know … yes. Yeah,” Coen said.
That day stamped the Jaguars as a Super Bowl contender and Coen as a Jacksonville Legend. He was standing up for your team, fans. He was standing up for your city, fans.
'It's all in competition'
Fast forward to Coen’s press conference on Sept. 16. I asked him if anybody had been assigned to monitor Payton’s comments this week for bulletin board material, motivational points, etc... It worked last December so why not go back to the well?
A smile crept across Coen’s face.
He knew where I was going … and he knew where I wanted him to go … and I knew he would have fun with it.
“I talked to Sean at the (league) meetings (last March) and he gave me a little love for it, but he said, ‘We’re coming; I’m coming for you this year,’” Coen said. “It’s great. It’s all in competition.”
It was great. It is all in competition. Payton had to applaud Coen for jumping on the “smaller market” line and using it was a tool to rev up the Jaguars. He would have done the same thing if he was coaching the Jaguars.
Coen then launched into his admiration of Payton.
“I’ve learned so much football from Sean Payton,” Coen said. “When we’re at the owner’s meetings, you just listen to the stories and a lot of it is insightful. You can learn something from every conversation with him because of his experience and a lot of the ways that I’ve typically modeled calling plays stems from what I learned from him.”
Coen respects Payton. Good. Got it.
Time for the Jaguars — The Little Engine That Can — to hit the road and continuing to show last year wasn’t a fluke and they can win in their “smaller market” but also in the big city. Time to earn more respect for your city.
Jaguars 27, Broncos 20.
Contact O’Halloran at rohalloran@gannett.com or on X at @ryanohalloran. Listen to Ryan on 1010AM on Tuesdays (6:35 p.m. on “Into The Night"), Thursdays (1:15 on "XL Primetime") and Fridays ("First Coast Football Friday" 4-7 p.m.).
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Look out Denver, the 'smaller market' Jaguars are coming back to town!
