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| Jack Del Rio |
Jacksonville Jaguars has recently fired head coach Jack Del Rio and reached an agreement to sell the small-market franchise to Illinois businessman Shahid Khan.
Majority owner Wayne Weaver made the announcement Tuesday. Weaver gave general manager Gene Smith a three-year contract extension. He said Khan will have 100-percent control of the team. Weaver called Khan "a great American success story" and said the Pakistan-born entrepreneur will keep the team in Jacksonville. Khan is the owner and CEO of the Flex-N-Gate Group based in Urbana, Ill. Khan had been a candidate to buy controlling interest in the St. Louis Rams last year. The sale of the franchise and the firing of Del Rio are the city's most significant news since the team's inception in 1993.
In the meantime, Former Jacksonville Jaguars star running back Fred Taylor who is playing in the team for 11 years from 1998-2008, doesn’t think recently fired head coach Jack Del Rio is fit to be a head coach, according to Yahoo! Sports. “At the end of the day, [Del Rio]‘s not a head coach,” Taylor told Yahoo!. “He’s a great defensive coach. But he’s not a head coach.”
Del Rio, 48, had posted a 68-70 record as Jacksonville’s head coach since joining the team in 2003. In 2002, Del Rio served as the defensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers, and he has also spent time as an assistant defensive coach for the Baltimore Ravens and the New Orleans Saints.
