Jacksonville Jaguars fans active on Twitter may have noticed strange activity within the Jags community today. In fact, some may feel like the app has turned into a bit of a “circus.”
That’s because the Jags fanbase has rallied to voice their displeasure with the decision to keep general manager Trent Baalke with a “KhlownOut” movement. Several fans have changed their profile avatars to a clown emoji and have shared tweets with the hashtags #FireBaalke or #KhlownOut. Some have also flooded the comment sections of the Jags’ social media account with clown emojis.
The call to action is one aimed at Jags owner Shad Khan (hence the unique spelling of the hashtag), but the tenth-year owner, who fans called out just a year ago for hitting 100 losses at the second-fastest rate of any owner, has yet to respond.
Clearly, Jags fans wanted a proper reset and are concerned that keeping Baalke will affect the head coaching search in a negative way. Most coaches prefer to have a say in who they will be working with as a general manager and would rather be paired with them on the same timeline. That’s understandable when considering the importance the head coach’s relationship with the general manager is. Starting off on on the wrong foot could result in a dysfunctional work place, and the Jags have already had their fill of dysfunction.
Baalke’s past with the San Francisco 49ers also has fans concerned, as the team had three head coaches under his tenure. While it isn’t clear why there was so much turnover under him, it’s yet another red flag in a series of worrying signs.
Lastly, Baalke’s inability to surround Trevor Lawrence with talent this offseason has left fans disenchanted. While the team did draft running back Travis Etienne (who went on injured reserve before the regular season), the other draft and free agent acquisitions haven’t provided the support around Lawrence that fans were hoping for and it’s showing as the Jags are 2-13.
Here are some tweets that visualize how viral the “KhlownOut” movement has gotten:
Getting so close to a #KhlownOut pic.twitter.com/59FbKJ9Sro
— Dilla (@E_Dilla) December 28, 2021
Great Khlown War 2021 pic.twitter.com/hf5xpMTmFz
— Samuel (@samdaddona) December 28, 2021
— Justis Mosqueda (NFL Owner) (@JuMosq) December 28, 2021
