Jacksonville Jaguars fans love Jaxson de Ville. In fact, he is easily the best mascot in the NFL. He is a regular at community events, he jumps off the rafters, goes out with a morphsuit and a speedo, and gives the fans of the Jacksonville Jaguars a good show, no matter what the score was. There was a scene nearing the end of the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers that caused a lot of controversy in the NFL and the Jacksonville Jaguars already apologized for the situation.
The sign above does read correctly. "Towels carry Ebola." It was a direct insult to the Pittsburgh Steelers trademark by their fans' Terrible Towels.
The rivarly between the Jaguars and Steelers goes all the way back since 1995. Jaxson de Ville was also criticized in 1998 for beating down a Kordell Stewart-like ragdoll as former Steelers Head Coach Bill Cowher called the mascot, "Jaxson de Villian."
As a resident of Jacksonville for so long, this writer has strong feelings for the fan base for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was between the two teams was in 2008 on a Sunday Night Football game. The Jaguars lost the game and right away, out of the seats, a Steelers fan jump a Jaguars fan and a fight broke loose. Being a child isn't a fun scenario. Walking to the parking lot, the car that was driven to the game was vandalized and the flags on the car was torn apart.
So you can say that this experience between the Steelers fan base is pure hatred from Jaguars fans. There are a lot of Steelers fans in Jacksonville, as shown yesterday, and it does get to Jaguars fans' nerves when we see them.
Back to Jaxson de Ville, did he go too far with the sign? A question to suggestion to the issue is that why is this a big issue? It may seem heartless to think about the tragedies in West Africa with about 3,300 deaths due to Ebola, and one case popping out in the U.S. last week in Dallas, TX. However, it is pretty pointless to call out a mascot who is already known to be outside the normal, kid-friendly mascot. Even Saturday Night Live is taking Ebola and putting it to comedic purposes.
While this is the Internet and many opinions and jokes are spread out everyday on Social Media and more, in long-run, this shouldn't be a huge issue for Jaxson de Ville nor the Jacksonville Jaguars organization. While feelings for the situation and Steelers fans can form a type of bias from the Jaguars fan base, everyone has to move on and call it a day for Jaxson de Ville.
