Jaguars find competitive locker room ping-pong builds team bonding, but who is the best?
Back in training camp and now deep into the season, the Jaguars have consistently extolled the virtues of team chemistry, which many view as a byproduct of head coach Doug Pederson making it a priority.
Among the many ways that bonding has manifested itself comes from a Butterfly brand, 9-foot by 5-foot blue table, with a small net draped across its mid-section, sitting in the middle of the locker room.
Table tennis, anyone?
Yes, actually. A good majority of the Jaguars partake in competitive ping-pong, which has done wonders to unify the locker room in a spirited way.
Whether it’s trash-talk engagement or to alleviate work-day stress from the high-intensity NFL world, the Jaguars relish moments when they can put a paddle in their hands and try to beat up on teammates in a non-contact sport.
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Singles or doubles, it doesn’t matter. Before or after practice or whenever there’s some down time, ping-pong games are usually going on continuously when players are in the locker room.
“You see everybody get on that table,” said receiver and return specialist Jamal Agnew. “It keeps the mood light.”
When he was with the Detroit Lions (2017-20), Agnew didn’t like it when new coach Matt Patricia came in during his second season and took away the ping-pong table that was there under predecessor Jim Caldwell.
NFL locker room games vary, usually at the discretion of the head coach. Agnew added the Lions also had corn hole, which is currently a staple in the Buffalo Bills’ locker room.
Unlike previous Jaguars head coaches Urban Meyer and Doug Marrone, both of whom prohibited locker room ping-pong, the player-friendly Pederson signed off on it because he liked the idea of the players having an outlet from always focusing on football.
During Pederson’s five years with the Philadelphia Eagles, there was a players lounge with a pool table, shuffleboard and a ping-pong table, similar to what the Jaguars will have when their renovated facility is completed.
“I like the fact that they can get together and build that camaraderie and kind of hang out together as teammates,” said Pederson. “It relaxes them, takes their mind off of things. Plus, it keeps them together. In the new building, we’ll have a player lounge that will be really beneficial for the guys.”
In Meyer’s abbreviated season before his dismissal last December, the only locker room outlet for the players was a putting mat that was used sparingly. There’s still a couple putters in the locker room and a small mat for players who want to brush up on their short game.
Long snapper Ross Matiscik, considered one of the Jaguars’ better ping-pong players, is sold on table tennis, saying: “It definitely brings more life to the locker room than a putting mat.”
Backup QB C.J. Beathard is ping-pong king
While there’s plenty of chatter between the Jaguars during and after ping-pong games, there’s no debate about which player deserves the No. 1 ranking.
It’s C.J. Beathard, the backup to quarterback Trevor Lawrence, that is unanimously lauded as the team’s best player. Punter Logan Cooke, who is uber-competitive about any game, describes the gap between Beathard and everybody else using a golf analogy.
“C.J. is like a scratch player and you’ve got a lot of guys that are about a 5- or 6-handicap,” said Cooke. “He’s probably played over 200 games in here and never lost. He plays defense where he like spins the ball and doesn’t make mistakes.”
Receiver Marvin Jones, whose locker is 15 feet away from the ping-pong table, usually plays doubles with safety Daniel Thomas. The pair just won five of seven matches in a series against the tandem of cornerback Tre Herndon and Chris Claybrooks, but Jones acknowledges Beathard plays on a different level.
“Beathard can return literally anything,” said Jones. “When someone spikes the ball, he just stands seven feet back [behind the table] and spins it back in. It’s a slow death for [opponents].”
One of the reasons Beathard has the jump on many of his teammates is he grew up in the small town of Thompson’s Station, Tenn., about 30 miles south of Nashville, with a ping-pong table in his house. He and brothers Tucker and Clay, who passed away in 2019, played often.
When Beathard was a senior at Iowa, he also took a ping-pong class twice a week in which he spent the whole time playing.
“Playing with my brothers, that’s where I got good at it,” said Beathard.
High-intensity competition
As badly as the Jaguars want to win on Sundays, don’t think for a second that every ping-pong game is taken casually.
It’s not easy for NFL-caliber players to turn off their competitive juices when they step off the football field.
Take, for example, a Wednesday post-practice during the Kansas City Chiefs game week. Matiscik got into a friendly ping-pong conversation with Beathard, insisting that he and a teammate had beaten Beathard and Lawrence three consecutive times at one point in doubles.
When Beathard relayed what Matiscik said to Lawrence, the starting quarterback made a beeline for the long snapper’s locker to dispute it and immediately challenged him to a doubles match.
In a matter of a minute, Beathard and Lawrence were at the table, paired off against Matiscik and Cooke for a game that had some unmistakable intensity. Players on both sides exchanged frustrated looks when returned shots went long or wide.
At one point, Cooke had to lunge for a shot while trading places with Matiscik to make contact. When the ball sailed long, he blurted out to his partner: “Get out of the way.”
The game’s momentum went back and forth for a brief period, with the Beathard-Lawrence team finally prevailing 21-14.
Right after his doubles team won, Beathard didn’t waste any time chirping about the victory.
“It feels great,” said Beathard. “Nothing better than beating guys in the locker room talking crap, thinking they can beat you. This is fun. It gets the adrenaline going. Good bonding. Tell anybody to put a team together and we’ll beat them.”
After Beathard, who considers Lawrence the team’s most improved ping-pong player, the consensus is the second tier behind the backup QB is a group consisting of Matiscik, kicker Riley Patterson, Cooke, third-team QB E.J. Perry and Trevor, along with two practice-squad players, tight end Gerrit Prince and receiver Seth Williams.
No doubt, other players would dispute they belong in the top-5. Beathard is hopeful any debate about a ping-pong pecking order could be decided by holding a team-wide tournament (singles and doubles) sometime before the season ends.
Ultimately, ping-pong for the Jaguars is more about camaraderie than anything else.
As Beathard says: “It’s fun, it’s brought a lot of guys together.”
Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Ping-pong table in Jaguars locker room brings team together
