Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver stepped to a podium on November 29, 2011 to announce what many in Jacksonville believed inevitable. He was firing head coach Jack Del Rio, whose team had lost 11 of 14 games and would miss the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season.

When he announced he was also selling his NFL franchise to auto parts magnate Shad Khan the news landed like a bombshell.

"My dream is to see this team be successful in Jacksonville, and I found an owner that has the commitment and that passion," Weaver said. "He really wanted to buy a team, and he wanted to do it here in Jacksonville. This gentleman is absolutely the American story."

Weaver brought to a close a period of years of speculation that the team was for sale and would end up leaving the city he worked so hard to put on the map with the arrival of an NFL franchise before the 1995 season. Weaver spoke with certainty about Khan's credentials and his intentions.

"There's not a doubt in my mind that this team (is) going to be in Jacksonville," Weaver said. "You have to trust an individual's integrity, and I have no doubt that Shahid is going to do what he plans to do."

Approval by the NFL owners in December was a formality, thus ending the first era of Jaguars football some 20 years after Weaver arrived to help rejuvenate Touchdown Jacksonville and the efforts to bring professional football to Northeast Florida.