At the end of the 2021 NFL season, Jacksonville Jaguars fans donned clown noses, wigs, and masks to protest the leadership of the franchise. For a second straight season, the team finished with the league’s worst record and the No. 1 pick in the draft.
Despite the public outcry, Jaguars owner Shad Khan decided not to fire general manager Trent Baalke.
The gamble has paid off for Khan. After a busy offseason in 2022, the Jaguars surged to prominence, earning an AFC South title and the team’s first playoff win in five years.
There’s much more positivity now surrounding Baalke, but he hasn’t forgot what fans thought of him a little over a year ago. In the first episode of “The Hunt,” a behind-the-scenes look at the Jaguars’ offseason produced by the team, Baalke revealed he keeps a clown figurine on his desk.
TRENT BAALKE HAS A CLOWN ON HIS DESK pic.twitter.com/ctk6wzFvww
— Dilla (@E_Dilla) April 6, 2023
“Yeah, some fan sent that to me,” Baalke explained on the show. “It was a little clown figurine and I said ‘You know what? I’m gonna put it there to remind myself every day why I come to work, what my purpose is, I guess. It’s to prove ’em wrong.”
Baalke became the Jaguars’ interim general manager in November 2020 following the firing of Dave Caldwell. He was promoted to the role full-time shortly after that season ended.
