Jacksonville Jaguars Fans Say Duval to Honor the County Where They Play

Every fan base has their own idiosyncrasies. Part of the joy of being a fan of a professional sports team is the sense of community you feel when you all participate in a shared ritual. The Jacksonville Jaguars had a rocky 2024 season in the NFL, but their fans remain loyal, and continue to chant "Duuuuval" at games whenever they can.

If you've ever watched a Jaguars game and wondered why the team's fans seem so insistent on that chant, we've got you covered. Here's what we know about why Jaguars fans shout Duval at games.

The simplest explanation is that Duval is the name of the county where Jacksonville is located. The chant, then, is meant to remind the fans and the team that they have the support of their area of Florida.

"This is our town," season ticket holder Jesse Pawlish told ESPN in 2023. "We're always defending it. We're always saying, 'This is where we're from. We've always been here.'"

For some players, especially those who have just recently joined the team, the chant sounds a lot like booing. That's in part because the fans don't just shout "Duval," they emphasize the word's first syllable so that it ultimately sounds more like "Duuuuuuval!"

"Because of how it sounded -- Duuuval -- I'm like, they must be booing, I don't know," running back D'Ernest Johnson said.. "I really didn't know what to expect, but when I got here, I get the whole Duval thing now."

Obviously, just explaining that the chant is meant to represent the county where Jacksonville is situated doesn't necessarily get at the full meaning behind the chant. Jacksonville is truly a local football team whose games are populated by local fans, and the chant gets at that central idea.

As Jesse explained, the chant is both meant to situate the team in a specific place, but also to represent a certain way of being in the world.

"I do attempt to explain it to [people who don't know about the chant]. I always find it interesting when people actually want to know. When they're like, 'What does that actually mean?' I'm like, 'OK, well, Duval County, that's where we're from. Jacksonville is Duval County.' It's just our identity. But Duval's also, like, a state of mind," he explained.

The chant itself seems to have originated on Jacksonville radio in the years before the Jaguars' first season in 1995. The chant's first real surge came decades after it made an imprint on the hip hop and radio worlds in the city.

When the team made it all the way to the AFC Championship game, it became one of their defining slogans. The Jaguars have yet to appear in a Super Bowl in their 30 years of existence, but the team is nonetheless riding high every year on the support it gets from fans. Some day, we'll be hearing the chants of Duval during the NFL's biggest game.