Team introductions are a chance for the home team to get fired up. However, the ORLANDO SENTINEL says that the Jacksonville Jaguars took a different approach yesterday when coming out for their game against the Tennessee Titans, actually setting their mascot on fire. Apparently Jaxson de Ville got a little too close to the pyrotechnics as the team charged out of the locker room, causing his stuffed ears to go up in flames.

Luckily, he was able to rush off the field and get put out before he did his full impersonation of Michael Jackson shooting a Pepsi commercial. (I guess that makes him the Jackson-Ville Jaguar. Get it?) But I think it’s safe to consider your mascot bursting into flames as a bad omen, and perhaps it was as the Jags blew a 14-3 halftime lead and fell to the Titans, 24-14.

In terms of “mascot fire incidents” this doesn’t seem to be as bad as the mother of all mascot flambé moments, when the Anaheim Ducks’ mascot Wild Wing tried to jump through a flaming hoop:

Not that the Jaguars needed a proverbial albatross hanging over their shoulders yesterday in the form of a smoldering big cat: the team seems to have “being awful” down to a science by this point. Team captain Mike Peterson getting fined and demoted for insubordination after getting into a shouting match with head coach Jack Del Rio is a perfect summary for this season: embarrassing and spiraling further and further out of control.

Mike Bianchi of the ORLANDO SENTINEL said after the game that the locker room “smelled of a dying team.” Usually, that’s only said about the Raiders, when the staff forgets to clean well enough to clear Al Davis’ “old man smell” out of the team offices. Clearly, the Jack Del Rio Death Watch is on.