Shahid Khan’s bid to buy the Jacksonville Jaguars was up for approval from NFL owners on Wednesday in Dallas and he had no problem joining the club.
The league’s owners unanimously approved the transfer of ownership from Wayne Weaver to Khan, giving the Jaguars a new owner and the NFL their first Pakistani-born (and best moustachioed) owner of any club. Khan had previously tried to buy the St. Louis Rams before reaching an agreement to buy the Jags last month.
Tania Ganguli of the Florida Times-Union has been gathering comments from and about Khan at the owners meeting. Khan earned high marks from Jerry Jones, who waved away concerns about IRS issues that came up when Khan was bidding on the Rams.
“He without question comes in as one of our most financially qualified owners. In short, this was not a stretch for him to buy the team and he, in my view, does not have the team in any leveraged position financially. It’s him and his family. … He’s obviously very passionate about football and very passionate about the NFL and I know that to be the case. I think as much as we thought of Wayne Weaver and the job he did coming in and doing a lot of the heavy lifting on an expansion franchise, he’s done the NFL an outstanding service by selling to a very qualified future owner.”
Khan reiterated that he has no plans to move the team from Jacksonville and said that he plans to buy a place in the city so that he can have more actual contact with others in the organization. Khan also said that the team needs to do “whatever it takes to get the fans engaged.”
High on that list will be hiring a coach who can improve on the results of the Jack Del Rio era.