Jax Jaguars President punts when questioned about Shad Khan controversy

Jaguars owner Shad Khan.

Friday saw Mayor Lenny Curry join Jacksonville Jaguars President Mark Lamping, to announce the 2017 recipients of the Jacksonville Veterans Resource and Reintegration Center community grants.

Ordinarily, the main interest would be in the organizations, and the Jaguars’ tangible multi-year commitment to military and veterans’ organizations.

This year, there was gaggle interest in the comments of Jaguars’ owner Shad Khan, who has lambasted President Donald Trump in the wake of Trump’s criticism of national anthem protests.

“You have to give Trump credit, people are confused on the First Amendment versus patriotism, that if you exercise your First Amendment, you’re not a patriot, which is crazy … People are confused on it, (Trump) knew he could hit on it and take advantage. I think what we’re seeing is the great divider overcoming the great uniter.” Khan said earlier this month.

Khan also lambasted Trump’s response to the death of a serviceman,  Army Sgt. La David Johnson, recently.

“It’s so bad,” said Khan to USA Today. “It’s below the lowest of the lowest expectations. It doesn’t sound rational. It’s bizarre.”

Khan then said that the President was more offensive than NFL protests of the national anthem.

“Let’s get real,” Khan said. “The attacks on Muslims, the attacks on minorities, the attacks on Jews. I think the NFL doesn’t even come close to that on the level of being offensive. Here, it’s about money, or messing with — trying to soil a league or a brand that he’s jealous of.”

In that context, the response of the Jaguars President — who issued a formal apology letter for the Jaguars kneeling in London, a letter that has seen its veracity questioned — and Mayor Curry, a political ally of Trump, were of interest.

To sum: Lamping showed an elusiveness the Jaguars haven’t seen since the Fred Taylor years, while Mayor Curry gave a direct enough answer, one that reconciled the incompatibility of views between his biggest donor and his party’s President.

Lamping attempted to avoid discussing the comments, instead discussing the Jaguars as “the sports franchise that does the most to honor the military … a model franchise.”

“What we control is what we do here in Jacksonville,” Lamping said, as if the comments of the team’s owner are somehow separate from that.

“I don’t think there’s anything inconsistent with what the Jaguars do in this community to support the military,” Lamping said, dodging yet another direct question about Khan ethering Trump and his adviser, Steve Bannon, as intentionally dividing people and playing to the right-wing base.

“I’m not sure if it really matters what I say,” Lamping continued, saying that what mattered was that “Shad, Tom Coughlin, and I got together with a group of military leaders representing current and retired military members and their families.”

“We had a wonderful discussion,” Lamping asserted. “We talked about things that are important to them, what our experience was, and we left that meeting with a very clear path.”

That path, said Lamping, was illustrated at the Jaguars’ last home game, where the players asked “everyone to join them in a prayer, a moment of reflection, for those that are serving and have served our country, for first responders … for people that suffered through Hurricane Irma … for the tragedy in Las Vegas.”

Lamping contined in that vein for a while longer, clearly deciding that — despite multiple opportunities to address the Jags’ owner becoming the sports world’s leading critic of the President — it was better to spin and move on.

Curry was more direct.

“You know where I stand. I’m a Republican. The President’s position — he’s a businessman, his position on job creation, economic development … as inartfully as it is expressed at times….”

Curry then pivoted to a description of a policy dinner recently, in which the speaker was asked to sum up much of what comes out of the Trump administration.

“If I’m a passenger on the plane,” Curry said, “I’m pulling for the pilot … Right now, we’re all passengers on the plane. Last time I looked, we’re still in the air. And I’m rooting for the pilot. The President’s the pilot.”

“As inartfully as the policies are expressed at times, we’re all passengers on the plane right now. I’m pulling for the pilot,” Curry said.

We then asked Curry if he thought Khan was still “pulling for the pilot.”

“I don’t comment on other people — look, I have my positions. I am aligned with the Jaguars organization in terms of support for the military. We are aligned on economic development, jobs, trying to do things to make this a better city,” Curry said.

“I have been very clear on my position with the [Trump] administration,” Curry said. “And my support in the past, and I remain where I was yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that.”

We asked Curry to evaluate Khan’s acidic comments about Steve Bannon; the mayor pivoted.

“I have been crystal clear in the campaign and since the election that as inartfully sometimes as the policies have been expressed,” Curry said, “I’m a passenger on the plane, I’m rooting for the pilot, and we’re still in the air.”