Jaxson de Ville
Encyclopedia
Mascot
The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
of the Jacksonville Jaguars
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, an NFL football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
franchise. His name is spelled "Jaxson" because Jacksonville is often shortened to "Jax." He is an anthropomorphic jaguar
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...
and is yellow with teal patches. He wears sunglasses, a Jaguars jersey, long shorts, and black and teal sneakers. The back of his jersey is typical, it reads "Jaxson" with his number, 00, but the front has a paw print. On certain occasions he wears other outfits, such as a large military field uniform when he was brought onto the field in a military jeep. Jaxson finds other creative ways to enter the stadium: using a zip wire to bungee jump off the stadium lights or sliding down a rope from the scoreboard. He is rarely seen without his motorized scooter and can sometimes be seen driving a golf cart.
Jaxson is known for his crazy antics. He is very interactive with the crowd and the Jaguars (if they're not too busy), and sometimes interacts with the opposing team's players as well. He often mocks and jokes with the other team's mascot, if they are present. These acts got him into trouble in 1998 and stemmed the changing of the NFL's mascot rules, and also caused him to calm down. However, Jaxson was still seen, by some, as a mascot that gets in the way during the game. After the October 22, 2007 game against Indianapolis, Colts President Bill Polian complained to the NFL, and Jaxson was reprimanded again. During the November 18, 2007 home game Jaxson spent a good portion of the game in a make-shift "cage", but was released for short periods so he could interact with fans and also to give him an opportunity to ride his scooter.
Another controversy arose during an online NFL mascot competition, where Raiders
Raiders
Raider may refer to:in Food:* Space Raiders, brand of crisps* the Twix chocolate bar was called Raider in several European countries until the 1990sin sports organizations:...
Fans and Jaguars Fans were to vote for their mascots. During the process, a loophole was found allowing individual users to vote tens of thousands of times, enabling the vote total for the Jags-Raiders match to go well over 1 million, disqualifying both mascots from the competition.
Jaxson appears at many events and around the Jacksonville community supporting various causes. He also participates in NFL and other mascot events such as the 2002 mascot convention that was held in New York City. Jaxson also contributes to the Jaguar's journal, provided by First Coast Community, which allows fans to post photos and includes journal entries from the mascot as well as the team members and ROAR members (the Jaguars cheerleaders).
Jaxson's first appearance was on August 18, 1996 and has been played by
Curtis Dvorak since his inception.