Former President Trump pulled in $255.4 million in political donations from his supporters in the eight weeks following the 2020 election, according to new federal filings, but much of this money—which was solicited to fund challenges to the outcome based on specious claims of voter fraud—will likely be put to other uses.
Key Facts
The fundraising total was reported in Federal Election Commission filings released over the weekend from WinRed, a platform used by Republicans to process online donations, and doesn’t include fundraising through other channels by Trump’s campaign committee, joint committees with the Republican National Committee and new political action committee, Save America, reports from which were expected to filter in later Sunday.
Trump’s fundraising success ebbed and flowed during this period: As noted by The New York Times, Trump and the RNC raised over $2 million every day on WinRed from the election until Dec. 14, the day of the Electoral College vote, pulling in an average of $2.9 million in the two weeks leading up to that vote.
The number dipped after the Electoral College voted to make Joe Biden president, and then spiked again at the end of the year, as Republicans rallied around the (false) claim that Biden’s win could be overturned when Congress voted to certify the Electoral College’s results on Jan. 6.
Fundraising then dropped off after the deadly Capitol attack when Trump largely stopped soliciting money from his supporters to support his election fraud claims.
Key Background
CNNcalculated that during the first month of Trump’s post-election battle, the president’s political operation sent out 414 fundraising appeals via email and 132 by text message. Hundreds more were sent before Jan. 6, with many directing supporters to an “Election Defense Fund,” according to a tracker of the emails. Though the pitch in many of the messages was to help finance Trump’s unfounded—and ultimately unsuccessful—legal challenges to the election outcome, it’s unclear yet how much of the money actually went toward this cause. Bloomberg reported that as of Dec. 4 the total spent on overturning the election by the Trump campaign was $8.8 million. The fine print at the bottom of some emails disclosed that large portions of the donations would go to Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America, which was created in the days after the election. Unlike contributions to a regular PAC, money in leadership PACs can be used “to fund basically anything,” explains the Washington Post’s Philip Bump.
Crucial Quote
“The money in the Save America PAC, unlike money contributed to a standard campaign committee, can be used to benefit Trump in innumerable ways,” wrote Bump. “Memberships to golf clubs. Travel. Rallies. Even payments directly to Trump himself, as long as he declares it income.”
Surprising Fact
The Republican National Committee will also take a chunk out of the fundraising sum, according to The New York Times, which reports that roughly 25% of the funds raised through Trump’s email and texting operations will go to the RNC
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Trump Raised $250 Million Since Election To Challenge Outcome—Here’s Where Most Of The Money Will Actually Go - Forbes
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Super Bowl LV is nearly upon us! We're down to two teams after an exciting Championship Sunday: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bucs caught the Green Bay Packers off guard in Lambeau, going up early and then holding on against Aaron Rodgers and Co. to send Bruce Arians and Tom Brady to the big game in their first year together. Then the reigning champion Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes made light work of the Buffalo Bills at home on Championship Sunday, with Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill dominating Sean McDermott's defense en route to a return trip to Super Sunday.
For the second time this year, the Bucs and Chiefs will go head to head -- now with a Lombardi Trophy is on the line. It all comes down to Super Bowl LV, the 55th annual showdown between the best of the best in the NFL. Either way, history will be made, as Brady looks to capture a seventh ring in his NFL-record 10th Super Bowl appearance and Mahomes looks to go back-to-back as the youngest QB to ever appear in consecutive Super Bowls.
How can you tune in? Where you can stream it? Who's expected to win?
We've got answers to all your Super Bowl questions, right here, right now:
Who's in the Super Bowl?
This year's championship will be played between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Chiefs will be making their fourth-ever Super Bowl appearance, representing the AFC (then the AFL) in Super Bowl I against the Packers, then returning to the big game in the 1969 and 2019 seasons. The Bucs will be making just their second Super Bowl appearance in franchise history, and their first in 18 years.
For a look at every starter and key role players for Chiefs vs. Buccaneers click here.
Enter Football Props for the big game and take your free shot to win the $1,000,000 jackpot with another $50,000 guaranteed going to the winner. No purchase necessary. See rules for details.
How did they get here?
The Chiefs are no strangers to the Super Bowl, having won it just last season. But this year, they were arguably even more dominant, seemingly going half-speed en route to a 14-2 finish, with Patrick Mahomes returning to the MVP race to help Kansas City lock up the AFC's No. 1 seed. With an opportunistic defense under Steve Spagnuolo and an offense loaded with the league's most reliably explosive weapons -- from Mahomes to Tyreek Hill to Travis Kelce to, heck, even Mecole Hardman -- they fended off a feisty Browns team in the divisional round despite a late head injury to Mahomes, then cruised past the Bills at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night, claiming their second AFC title in as many seasons.
The Buccaneers haven't played on Super Sunday since Brad Johnson, Mike Alstott, Simeon Rice, Derrick Brooks and John Lynch were starring on their team back in 2002. But this year, unlike any other before, they had Tom Brady. At 43, Brady hasn't been perfect, but he's certainly still been dropping dimes, carrying momentum from a 40-touchdown regular season, when Tampa Bay went 11-5 in its second year under coach Bruce Arians, into the playoffs. After edging Washington in the wild-card round and then riding a big defensive showing over the Saints in New Orleans, the Bucs outdid Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay to claim the NFC title, with Brady throwing deep early and often to give Tampa a two-score lead that the Packers could never surmount.
What happened when they last played?
Great question! And how observant of you, knowing that the Chiefs and Buccaneers met earlier this season -- in Week 12, to be exact. When the two sides clashed then, on Nov. 29, the Chiefs went up big early on, taking a 17-0 lead as Tyreek Hill exploded past Tampa Bay's secondary, but the Bucs pulled within three in the fourth quarter thanks to some of Brady's own magic. Ultimately, Andy Reid and Co. sealed the victory, 27-24.
When is the Super Bowl?
Super Bowl LV will be played on Sunday, Feb. 7, with kickoff slated for 6:30 p.m. ET.
Super Bowl LV is almost here, and you can watch it for free on the CBS Sports App.
Where is the Super Bowl?
Super Bowl LV will be played at Raymond James Stadium, home of the Buccaneers, in Tampa, Florida.
This will be the first-ever Super Bowl where one of the participating teams is playing in its own stadium. Raymond James Stadium will be making its third Super Bowl appearance, having hosted before at the end of the 2008 and 2000 seasons. It will be the fifth time that Tampa has played host to a Super Bowl, with the since-demolished Tampa Stadium first holding the big game back in January 1984.
Who's favored to win?
The reigning champion Chiefs are currently slight favorites in Super Bowl LV, with William Hill Sportsbook have Kansas City as 3-point favorites ahead of Feb. 7's championship.
And here's the latest from SportsLine stats specialist Stephen Oh:
Have a feeling that we may have Kansas City as a slightly higher favorite after the stats from Sunday are processed, but the initial forecast has the Chiefs as a 55 percent favorite to beat Tampa Bay with an average sim score of Chiefs 28, Buccaneers 26.
This year, CBS Sports is offering extensive access to pre-game Super Bowl LV coverage.
CBS Sports HQ, the 24/7 streaming sports news network available for free across digital platforms, services and connected devices, will be live from Tampa during the week leading up to CBS Sports' live stream of the game. Beginning Monday, Feb. 1, CBS Sports HQ will deliver on-site programming and reports throughout each day, and on game day will stream live pre-game coverage, plus post-game analysis and highlights.
Starting at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 7, CBS Sports' streaming coverage will also be available to viewers across an expanded lineup of platforms and devices, including unauthenticated at CBSSports.com and on the CBS Sports app for OTT devices and services, smart TVs and mobile devices.
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The Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams got a head start Saturday on what figures to be a frenetic 2021 quarterback market, swapping Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff in a blockbuster deal that also included two first-round draft picks. While there's a case to be made that both the Lions and Rams are winners of the trade, with L.A. upgrading under center and Detroit loading up for a rebuild, plenty are curious about what this mega-deal means for another potential QB trade -- specifically, of Deshaun Watson.
Despite Texans management expressing "zero interest" in dealing its young star QB, more than half the NFL has reportedly inquired about Watson in the wake of the Pro Bowler's apparent trade request. The expected price tag for Watson, who's fresh off a career year and just turned 25 before the 2020 season, was already high, if not unprecedented. But now that Stafford, who's seven years older and openly shopped himself with Detroit's help, is set to net two firsts and a third-rounder as part of the Goff deal, has Watson's market value drastically changed? Will the Texans' demands go up?
This our answer, plain and simple: Yes, but not necessarily as much as you'd think.
Let's start by dispelling the notion that the Stafford deal is completely incomparable. Some will argue that Detroit only got three picks, including two first-rounders, for the 32-year-old Stafford because it agreed to absorb the remainder of Goff's $134 million contract -- an obvious and all but publicly condemned burden for the Rams. That's partially true. The Lions' big haul had as much, if not more, to do with the Rams' erasure of Goff's lofty price tag than the Rams' eye for Stafford. But that doesn't mean anything to the public eye. The transaction wire does not specify which picks were "dedicated" to unloading Goff and which ones were compensating Stafford's value.
In other words, even if the Rams would've given up just one single first-round pick for Stafford had Goff's salary dump not been included, the reality is they paid two firsts and a third. And so, justified or not, the Texans can (and, if they're smart, absolutely will) wave these trade terms in front of anyone calling about Watson. They already had reason to hold out for monster offers for Watson. Now, the surface-level optics of the Stafford trade give them even more reason to do so.
Still, how much more leverage does this give Houston? That's a tricky question, because, frankly, the Texans still hold all the leverage here. As much as they've become a central source of ridicule for NFL fans and media alike, they own their star QB's rights through 2025. From a public relations standpoint, they're already derided for their dysfunctional journey to this point. From a financial and team-building perspective, they have no reason to jump at either Watson's trade request or any trade offers. This is a 25-year-old QB, drafted 12th overall four years ago, coming off a nearly 5,000-yard, 33-touchdown season. He may not be Patrick Mahomes, but he's not someone for whom you entertain offers, let alone dangle to other teams, even if he doesn't like your front-office decisions.
But let's play Watson's game, because, ultimately, the PR perspective tends to win out in these circumstances. Should he eventually threaten to retire, for example, or go more public with his displeasure, the Texans will inevitably play ball in trade talks. And now we're back to the question at hand: How much does Stafford's deal help them? It's hard to specifically quantify, but we'd venture to say they can milk at least an additional mid-round pick out of another team because of the Lions and Rams swap.
As for what the Texans will demand in general, the Houston Chronicle's John McClain suggests the team will want at least two firsts, two seconds and two young defensive starters for Watson. Few teams would likely be willing to go so far, with the New York Jets among the most speculated landing spots, but that price tag sounds about right. In our estimation, it's most likely that Houston would simply ask for more first-rounders -- between three and four, to start -- as the base compensation. They wouldn't have settled for less than a pair of firsts (and plenty of secondary assets) before the Stafford deal, and now, they most definitely won't.
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We'll explain why a $1,400 stimulus check ruffles more fiscally conservative feathers and how a stimulus check could become more targeted, if this is becomes an avenue of negotiation over the final package. At this point, the GOP counterproposal remains just that. The House of Representatives will return to Washington on Monday, and House Democrats are expected to produce a stimulus bill proposal of their own. We'll continue to update this story with new information.
3 ways the $600 GOP proposal wants to change the next stimulus check
Here's the quick snapshot. Below, we'll go over exactly why they would want to target the next check, and how each change would work on its own.
Making a more "targeted" stimulus check will put additional money out of reach for some -- and that's the point.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Why do some people want to 'target' the next stimulus check?
The argument here is that a $1,400-per-person maximum would send millions of stimulus checks to people who are considered high earners -- in addition to sending the full $1,400 upper limit to many tens of millions of people who fit into the sweet spot that Congress wants to supply with stimulus money. For the sake of simplicity, that's defined as single taxpayers with an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $75,000 per year or less (and their equivalent for heads of household and married couples).
The reason that a $1,400 limit could send checks to people who make "too much money" comes down to the way that stimulus checks have been calculated so far. The formula was written into the respective stimulus bills in a way that provides a partial payment to people who make more than the $75,000 per year threshold (up to a certain limit).
Looking at the formula for the $1,200, $600 and proposed $1,400 checks, it's immediately clear how raising or lowering the per-person maximum -- e.g. $1,400 versus $600 -- can change the total number of people over the $75,000 income limit who could be eligible for a payment.
For example, using our $1,400 stimulus calculator, a single taxpayer with an AGI below $75,000 would receive the full $1,400 check. At $85,000, this person could receive $1,150; at $90,000 a year, they could get $650; and if they make $102,900, the Treasury would send a stimulus check for $5.
In contrast, a $600 stimulus maximum allots a single taxpayer with an AGI of $80,000 a stimulus check for $350. The same person who makes $86,900 a year would get only a $5 check.
The result is that, with the current formula, more people are eligible overall to receive a stimulus check of some amount, even if it's a relatively small payment. Dependents and spouses add another layer -- here's more information, including a handy comparison chart.
When it comes to divvying up stimulus check money, there's more than one option.
Sarah Tew/CNET
A $1,000 rather than $1,400 check is one way to reach fewer people
The $600 billion GOP proposal would supply a $1,000 stimulus check instead of Biden's $1,400. Even if no other changes were made to the formula or to the income limit, lowering the amount would automatically disqualify more people simply because of the way the math works out.
For example, the drop from the first $1,200 stimulus payment to the $600 second stimulus check immediately disqualified people who had otherwise qualified for the first stimulus check. Simply using a $600 base instead of $1,200 reduced the cutoff point for receiving a partial payment.
Said another way, the smaller the per-person maximum, the sooner people who made more than $75,000 a year hit the limit for receiving any money.
With the first check, a single taxpayer -- remember, no spouse or kids -- could get some amount of stimulus money if they made under $99,000. With the second check, that vanishing point dropped to $87,000. The only difference in that part of the equation was the maximum per-person payment. (Separately, child dependents counted for $600 in the second check instead of $500.)
Changing the math in the stimulus check formula used for the first two checks would be one way to limit the number of people who receive a check, and a method that the GOP pitch offers in addition to other measures. Let's just look at this one on its own -- for the sake of argument, let's assume that the final bill would keep the $1,400 maximum instead of $1,000, and the income threshold at $75,000 instead of the proposed $55,000.
Changing any part of the formula would limit the number of people to receive a stimulus check.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Adjusting the part of the formula that controls partial payments could result in people who make over $75,000 per year hitting the vanishing point to get some amount of stimulus money, even with a $1,400 maximum payment, resulting in fewer checks going out overall.
For example, with the current formula, a $1,400 check would give a person with an AGI of $80,000 a year a $1,150 stimulus check. The GOP bill suggests an adjustment to the formula that would reduce your share by 10% instead of 5% for every $1,000 in income.
Therefore, the more you earn, the less money you could receive, at a higher rate than the current formula. That would effectively mean that people who are relatively high earners would get a much smaller check or none at all.
Lower the income limit to receive the full payment amount
The $600 billion Republican proposal would make fewer people eligible to receive the full stimulus check maximum. While the bill suggests a $1,000 per-person limit, we're going to explain what happens if this were the only thing to change in Biden's current proposal.
Some people may have to kiss a third stimulus check goodbye.
Sarah Tew/CNET
In that case, say you have a $1,400 check, and people who make under $55,000 are the only ones who would receive the full amount. Everyone with an adjusted gross income over that amount would receive a partial payment -- which would also peter out quicker for people with relatively higher incomes. That calculation would keep the highest earners from receiving a stimulus check for any quantity.
What if there were a cutoff to the upper limit instead?
Let's say Congress wanted to send $1,400 to everyone who makes under $75,000 per year, but didn't want to send money to anyone who makes $90,000 a year or above. Another hypothetical way to achieve, which was not mentioned in the GOP proposal, would be to leave the stimulus check formula as is, but create an additional cutoff that would stop the IRS and Treasury from sending checks to single taxpayers with AGIs at $90,000 or above.
Again, this is just an example, with negotiators working out specifics for married couples filing jointly, and people with dependents.
Could qualifications once again expand to more groups?
In addition to supporting larger stimulus checks, Biden also wants to include two previously excluded groups: dependents of any age (not just children under 17) and all families with mix-status citizenship. Combined, that could potentially extend stimulus funds to nearly 20 million people who previously might not have been counted toward the family total.
If passed, the outcome would most likely be a larger stimulus check for families that previously qualified (in the case of 17-year-olds and older adult dependents), and some mixed-status families qualifying for a new check for the first time. In all cases, families would have to meet all other eligibility requirements -- like an income limit -- to receive a future stimulus check.
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While the ex-president continues to claim he won an election he lost, his real estate company is fibbing at scale on its website.
Visit the Trump Organization’s website, and you’ll find glassy New York skyscrapers, rolling Virginia vines and a shimmering Vegas pool. Alongside all the glamor, there’s hard data—facts and figures about the president’s business. Much of that data, however, is not true.
Consider the statistics about 40 Wall Street. The website calls the skyscraper a “72-story landmarked address.” It’s actually a 63-story building, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The site says it has 1.3 million square feet of office space. It really has 1.1 million, according to the document.
What The Trump Organization Claims
What The Documents Say
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The website says the president’s hotel in Las Vegas, a golden tower just off the strip, “rises 64 stories high.” It would, if its floors didn’t jump from the eighth level to the 16th level. But since a drawing filed with local officials appears to show them doing just that, the building actually has more like 57 stories.
What The Trump Organization Claims
At Trump's building in Las Vegas, it takes some strange math to get to 64 floors. Above the ground level, there's an office, five floors of parking, a pool, and then—suddenly—the "16th level," according to an architectural drawing (below).
What The Documents Say
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The site says Trump Tower stands “68 stories above Fifth Avenue.” But there are fewer than 65 floors in the building, according to an analysis of documents filed with the SEC and New York City. The site claims the “first 26 floors are comprised of luxury offices,” even though the SEC filing notes just 13 floors of office space.
What The Trump Organization Claims
Lots of buildings skip the 13th floor. But, as an SEC filing (below) shows, Trump Tower skips the sixth through 13th floors, jumping straight from the fifth level to the 14th.
What The Documents Say
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The inflated figures don’t just appear on the Trump Organization’s website. Pick a major news organization, and there’s a good chance it has amplified Trump’s claims. A brief search turned up examples from theNewYorkTimes, theWashingtonPost, Fox News, the WallStreetJournal, CBS News and, yes, Forbes. Newsrooms train reporters to get their information from direct sources, which can make it easy to overlook false claims, especially ones involving trivial matters. After all, who would lie about the size of their buildings?
Donald Trump, of course. In fact, he’s been employing such tactics for years. Veteran Trump chronicler Timothy O’Brien called him out for inflating the number of floors in Trump Tower years ago. That didn’t deter Trump. “Truthful hyperbole” is how the former president describes this sort of thing. “I play to people’s fantasies,” he wrote in his 1987 bestseller, Trump:The Art of the Deal. “People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular.”
It goes beyond typical hyperbole, though. Trump World Tower, for instance, does not have 90 stories. Trump just decided to call the 70th floor the 90th, reasoning in a document filed with local officials that the ceilings were tall enough to justify his miscounting.
What The Trump Organization Claims
The website describes Trump World Tower as a "90-story" building while, on another page, touting its "70-story glass curtain wall facade." It's easy to get confused, given that Trump calls the 70th floor the 90th.
What The Documents Say
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His website says another building in Manhattan, Trump International Hotel & Tower, is 52 stories. But its “52nd floor” appears to really be the 45th. Even the Trump Organization has trouble keeping up with all the contradictory information. In one part of the website, it says Trump National Doral has 700 rooms. In another, it says 643.
What The Trump Organization Claims
The condo declaration for Trump International Hotel & Tower (below) describes how Trump refers to the 16th level of the building as the 23rd, thereby inflating the total number of floors.
What The Documents Say
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Trump Organization representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Certain statements are more defensible than others. For instance, Trump’s bio describes him as a “dealmaker without peer,” which someone could argue, even though the latest Forbes 400 listed 13 New York real estate tycoons richer than Trump. The site says 40 Wall Street is “directly across” from the New York Stock Exchange, although it’s actually down the block a bit. The site boasts that Trump’s Westchester County golf club is “just 30 minutes from New York City,” which might be true, if you start in New York’s closest borough, the Bronx, and hit very little traffic on the way up north. Or if you take a helicopter.
In addition to all the buildings, Trump’s website includes a page about his aircraft. It features a picture of a black helicopter, complete with a vanity tail number: N76-DT. Nowhere does the page mention that Trump recently sold the asset. Given Trump’s propensity to peddle false information—first as a businessman, then as president, now as a businessman once more—it seems unlikely that all the misstatements will be corrected soon.
What The Trump Organization Claims
The holding company that held the chopper pictured at right on the Trump website recently completed a $900,000 sale, according to a document that the Trump Organization submitted to U.S. officials (below).
The Los Angeles Rams made a blockbuster trade on Saturday, sending quarterback Jared Goff along with two first-round picks and a third-round pick to the Detroit Lions for Matthew Stafford. It was a lot to give up (here's how we graded the trade for each team) but anyone paying close attention to Rams general manager Les Snead in the week leading up to the big deal shouldn't have been too surprised.
Snead -- the man who helped sign Goff to a Rams contract that ran through the 2024 season -- simply wouldn't commit to Goff, no matter how much the media asked about it. Asked Tuesday about the possibility of Goff not returning to the Rams in 2021, Snead spoke as if the former No. 1 pick's future was already in jeopardy. Refusing to commit to the QB's place on next year's roster, he teased reporters by flaunting "the beautiful mystery of the future" and said "it's way too early to speculate."
"Not going to get into specifics on (that)," Snead said when asked whether Goff may not return. "Jared Goff, he's a Ram right now. What's today? It's January 26th."
By January 30th, Goff no longer was a Ram. This shouldn't necessarily be surprising, considering coach Sean McVay refused to name Goff his starting QB immediately after the Rams' divisional-round loss to the Packers. It all led to Saturday's trade, underlining the Rams' commitment -- or lack thereof -- to Goff, whose four-year, $134 million extension signed in 2019 had yet to even kick in. It was always going to be difficult for the Rams to trade Goff this offseason based on his contract, but they did it -- a creative deal that gives L.A. a major upgrade at QB, though coming with a hefty price tag.
Snead permitting continued speculation of Goff's uneasy standing in L.A. leading up to the trade made it clear the Rams weren't sold. The 2021 offseason was already shaping up to be a whirlwind of potential QB movement, and the Rams and Lions have already gotten involved. The question now is: Who'll be next?
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JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — It might be too much to ask of one man to save a team, especially one just 21 years of age. But in the United States the influence of winning athletes cannot be overstated, and no one wins quite like Trevor Lawrence.
The 2021 NFL Draft looms large for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
In the 27th year of marriage between the city and the team, neither party feels particularly fulfilled: The Jaguars are not winners, and Jacksonville is not the destination city it has for so long aspired to be.
The franchise’s lease expires in 2030, and rumors abound that the team could put down roots elsewhere — maybe even in London, where owner Shad Khan has strong ties.
Sports Mania in Jacksonville Beach is already selling Lawrence T-Shirts. Joshua Needelman/Staff
There is no balm, however, like winning, and a cavalry is coming. On Jan. 14 the Jaguars hired Urban Meyer, the former Florida and Ohio State coach with three national championships, and on April 29 the team has the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft.
There is no doubt who the franchise will select. Lawrence is coming to Jacksonville.
That the Clemson superstar would be the first selection in this draft has felt preordained since Jan. 7, 2019, when the then-freshman carved up Alabama in the Tigers’ 44-16 national championship win in California. The sports media machine did the rest: Here was the second coming of Peyton Manning.
Lawrence’s celebrity only grew over the next two seasons. That he continued to win helped. So did his hair – long, blond and flowing from his helmet – a reminder of his humanity in an otherwise impersonal, brutal game. In 2020 Lawrence was named ACC Player of the Year and finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting, but he also won hearts for standing up for racial justice and player empowerment.
Jacksonville, which is just 25 miles south of the Georgia state line, was the 41st largest media market in the nation in 2020, per Nielsen: Bigger than the likes of Oklahoma City and Louisville but smaller than Tampa, Miami, Orlando and West Palm Beach.
Jaguars owner Shad Khan, the Pakistani-born billionaire who also owns the London-based soccer team Fulham FC of the Premier League, is bent on redeveloping Jacksonville’s sleepy downtown area and turning the city into a major metropolis.
Khan has long championed Jacksonville's "potential." But potential is not sustainable. Potential must eventually give way to growth, and potential will not keep Khan from moving the team, perhaps to London.
Jacksonville needs a star.
‘Lot J’
Ninety-eight days before the draft, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry sat on a couch in his third-floor City Hall office, discussing the future of his city's preeminent attraction.
"It's a privilege to be an NFL city," he said, the Florida sunshine beaming through the windows, "but winning solves all problems."
Curry chuckled, flashing his bright white teeth. It was the laugh of a man who knows what's at stake.
Jacksonville might not have the high profile of some other Florida cities, but Curry is no small-town mayor. In 1968, Jacksonville's government consolidated with adjacent Duval County, making it the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. With nearly one million residents, it's the most populous in the state.
Trevor Lawrence left Clemson as the winningest quarterback in program history. Jeff Siner/ACC photo.
When the Jaguars are playing well, Curry said, the city's disparate parts come together as one. He referred to the 2017 season, when the team made it to the AFC Championship game.
"I couldn't (go) into a restaurant, or a coffee shop, or a store without (people wearing Jaguars attire)," Curry said. "They felt good about everything."
About two miles away, TIAA Bank Field, the home of the Jaguars shrouded by palm trees, sat mostly quiet.
Birds chirped. Employees buzzed around in golf carts. And from Lot J, a speaker screeched with the pained roar of a dinosaur. Jurassic Quest, the traveling, drive-through exhibition of life-size dinosaurs, had come to Jacksonville.
Khan had bigger plans for the lot. He envisioned a major entertainment complex, a boon to downtown. But a city council vote Jan. 12 killed the $450 million dollar proposal, and so for two weeks in January the lot was taken over by life-size prehistoric reptiles, like the plateosaurus and the lophostropheus. Entry fee: $49.
“Lot J was a piece of the puzzle," Curry said, "to make the team economically feasible over the long term."
There are more pieces. But the urgency with which Khan’s pushing for redevelopment points to a sobering reality: The team doesn't have to stay. Extinction is not off the table.
Curry will leave office in 2023, and he said he wants to make sure his successor understands how important the Jaguars are to the city.
Critics claim Curry has too cozy a relationship with Khan.
The mayor sees things differently.
“Here’s what I try to communicate to people, and it’s not a threat,” Curry said. “You have to nurture a relationship. Right? You have to demonstrate that you value it.
“I think those that come after me, and those that are making policy decisions right now, oughta think through that when politics seems to be getting in the way.”
‘Freakin’ stoked’
Jacksonville is drunk on hope.
Less than three miles from TIAA Bank Field, down Gator Bowl Boulevard and off of E. 8th Street, is Strings Sports Brewery. Serving house-crafted beer and bar food, Strings has become a favorite of Jaguars fans.
At around 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 20, all of the televisions were turned to ESPN. Jay Nessler, a Jaguars superfan, sat on a stool sipping a glass of the hazy IPA Bullet Bob.
“I saw our logo on ESPN more in one week,” Nessler said, “than I have in 20 years.”
Nessler was born in Jacksonville in September 1993, two months before the NFL awarded the city the team. His second birthday fell on the same weekend of the team’s first home game, Sept 3, 1995. Jacksonville lost.
TIAA Bank Field has yet to be home to a consistent winner. Joshua Needelman/Staff
These days, when the Jaguars lose, Nessler said his whole week gets ruined.
He wore black-rimmed glasses, a gray hoodie and a tight mustache not unlike that of Gardner Minshew, the Jaguars’ incumbent starting quarterback.
“It predates Gardner Minshew time,” Nessler said.
Sure it does. Jacksonville was overtaken with so-called “Minshew Mania” in 2019, when the then-rookie with the funky facial hair, jean shorts and gunslinger mentality restored a modicum of relevancy to the franchise. For all of the fanfare, the Jaguars finished just 6-10.
“When you’ve lost as much as the Jaguars have in the last decade, the fan base is crying out for hope,” said Gene Frenette, a veteran columnist in his 40th year at the Florida Times Union. “No one looked at Gardner Minshew and saw a generational quarterback like they do with Trevor.”
Lawrence at Clemson joined a program flirting with a dynasty. In Jacksonville, he’ll be asked to lead a franchise with just one winning season in the past 13 years. The Jaguars in 2017 went 10-6 and fell one win short of the Super Bowl, but otherwise have been perennial losers.
That the Jaguars even ended up in this spot, with the chance to draft Lawrence, felt like something of a miracle. Jacksonville beat the Indianapolis Colts, 27-20, the first week of the season, then fell into a miserable losing streak. The New York Jets were winless for much of the campaign and appeared primed to land the No. 1 overall pick, with Jacksonville likely to draft second.
Then the Jets won two of their three final regular-season games, and Jacksonville finished the season 1-15, the worst record in the NFL. The No. 1 pick was theirs.
“I was talking myself into liking (former Ohio State quarterback) Justin Fields (at No. 2) for the longest time,” said Colby Adeeb, a brewer and co-owner of Strings. “And then when the Jets won I was like, '(Forget) Justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence is so much better.’”
Adeeb said Strings plans to name a beer after Lawrence, perhaps playing on his jersey number: “16” and “Sweet 16” are options. The brewery asked the quarterback what his favorite kind of beer was over Instagram but didn’t get a response.
It’s unclear if Lawrence drinks — he’s a devout Christian — but Strings plans to have the beer ready for draft day. Nessler’s counting the days:
“We are freakin’ stoked."
‘Bortles!’
In the wake of Meyers’ hire, the opening salvo in what Jaguars fans hope is a sea change, NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Moss made headlines for ripping Duval County. The county makes up much of the Jacksonville metropolitan area.
“Duval County is not a good county to be in,” Moss said on ESPN. “And I’m talking about the violence — not just the people. I’m talking about the violence and the crime.”
It’s true that Jacksonville has long ranked among the most dangerous areas in Florida — and the entire Southeast — and it hasn’t always been presented favorably in pop culture.
In the hit NBC comedy The Good Place, on which Clemson philosophy professor Todd May was a consultant, the character Jason Mendoza was portrayed as a lovable if absent-minded Jacksonville native and Jaguars fanatic. Throughout the series Mendoza professed his irrational love for former Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles, a middling talent who's now a Los Angeles Rams backup.
“Bortles!” Mendoza shouted over and over again, and America laughed.
It’s not unreasonable that the city would prefer an alternative point of identification. Sports Mania, an apparel store on 3rd Street in Jacksonville Beach, on Jan. 21 was already selling Lawrence-themed gear — not officially licensed.
Jacksonville has not always been presented favorably in pop culture. It’s not unreasonable that the city would prefer an alternative point of identification. Joshua Needelman/Staff
On the front wall of the store, Sports Mania offered two options — the first T-shirt was black, with Lawrence’s last name and the number “1” written in white. The other followed the same color scheme, with the quarterback’s full name encircled in a box with a plea at the bottom: “Make Duval Great Again.”
The adjacent rack featured a pair of Minshew shirts, which an employee said were likely to soon go on sale.
For longtime residents, all of the hoopla surrounding the young star quarterback feels familiar. Taped to a freezer inside Beach Hut Cafe, a no-frills Jacksonville Beach bistro with an analog menu board and a meat loaf lunch special on Mondays, is an old sticker, one half Jaguars teal and the other Florida Gators orange.
“DRAFT TEBOW” it said.
Savior
Jacksonville is about 80 miles north of the University of Florida’s campus in Gainesville, meaning it’s in Gator country. It’s also in Tim Tebow country.
Tebow, a Jacksonville native and the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner, took the college football world by storm in the late 2000s when he helped Florida — then coached by Meyer — to a pair of national championships.
Jaguars fans buzzed about the possibility of the team taking Tebow in the 2010 NFL Draft, but then the Denver Broncos selected the quarterback No. 25 overall. His NFL career never panned out, and Tebow since 2016 has played in the New York Mets’ farm system.
Trevor Lawrence led Clemson to the College Football Playoff in each of his three Clemson seasons. Ken Ruinard/ACC photo.
That hasn’t stopped some from clamoring for the fantastical notion of Tebow pairing up with Meyer once more. It is not uncommon for sports fans to conflate nostalgia with practicality, but the fan base’s continued love affair with Tebow underscores an important point: Jacksonville loves a savior.
Here comes Lawrence.
Is it fair to place such a burden on one man’s shoulders? Perhaps not. But if not him, then who? Lawrence is soft-spoken but strong-willed; young but seasoned. Lawrence in 2020 put up career-best numbers while pushing for change at a time of of massive unrest, upheaval and polarization. He's the kind of leader supporters of rival teams can't help but admire. He stood proudly in front of a 'Black Lives Matter' banner and hardly lost a fan.
Jacksonville might not be London, but it has potential. Jaguars fans can see themselves inside the stadium post-pandemic, packed in on top of each other, all screaming and howling, knowing their knight in shining locks has arrived.
