JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Whether it's a quartet of players getting arrested for failing to pay a tab at a British nightclub or a locker-room spat or a four-game losing streak, things couldn't get much worse for the Jacksonville Jaguars at the moment -- on the field or off it.
Metropolitan police said they were called at 3:55 a.m. Saturday about a fight over a "large" unpaid bar tab at the London Reign Showclub. Officers arrested safeties Barry Church, Ronnie Harrison and Jarrod Wilson along with cornerback D.J. Hayden on suspicion of fraud. They were taken to a central London police station for questioning, held for nine hours, and then released without being formally charged because the debt, reported to be £50,000 ($64,000), was paid.
All but Hayden, who was inactive due to an injury, played Sunday.
Church called the whole thing about paying the bill a misunderstanding.
"There was definitely a misunderstanding, but as far as my actions are concerned, I take full responsibility," Church said. "I don't want to be a distraction or anything like that to my team and my teammates, but we handled it as a private matter within the team And we'll just go from there."
NFL.com reports that Myles Jack, Telvin Smith and Leon Jacobs were also at the club, but were not detained.
"I would say to the fans that we are sorry ... that we are not pulling up to your standards," linebacker Telvin Smith said.
"Before we start going on the field and performing better, we’ve got to take a good look at what we’re doing, you know what I’m saying, at all the other times," Coach Doug Marrone said after the Jaguars dropped to 3-5 and a tie for last in the AFC South with a 24-18 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at Wembley Stadium.
Sports talk show host Jeff Prosser said there’s a clear lack of discipline and maturity on the team.
"They’re young guys," Prosser said. "There’s nothing wrong with going out. There is something wrong with getting arrested. There’s something wrong with spending nine hours in the jail 30 hours before you play a football game."
News4Jax NFL analyst and former Jaguars QB Mark Brunell agreed.
"If they are 6 and 2 right now, I don’t think it’s that big of a story. But the fact they are 3 and 5, it’s a big story because it makes you wonder where their head is at," Brunell said.
Brunell said he expects the four players arrested will face hefty fines. He also said that while players have a curfew the night before a game, they would be free to go when and where they please on Friday night or early Saturday morning.
Good time for a bye week?
A club that reached the AFC championship game last season and seemed to cement its status as a contender by beating the New England Patriots in Week 2 last month is now in total disarray.
This week off may give the team time to regroup and a chance to try to salvage the season. But there's little reason to think that's even possible at this point.
Quarterback Blake Bortles' playoff competence now seems as if it were the mirage many suspected, and while he got off to start again -- after being yanked midgame a week ago -- he led Jacksonville's offense to only one touchdown and four field goals against Philadelphia.
The defense is dealing with injuries and inconsistencies and a sudden inability to tackle.
A week ago, after a 20-7 loss to the Houston Texans, Calais Campbell was seen holding back fellow defensive end Yannick Ngakoue in the locker room, fallout from some postgame shouting and finger-pointing.
The Jaguars are averaging just 11.5 points per game during the current slide. Their opponents? More than twice that, 28.5.
"We've got a lot to do," Marrone acknowledged, "in a lot of different areas."
That includes out-on-the-town discipline and internal team harmony. Bortles said the arrest of four defensive players less than 36 hours before the game had no effect on the team's showing Sunday.
Marrone, though, conceded, "A lot of things that you do during the week have an impact."