5 MINUTES AGO: “Thank you for believing in my husband when so many didn’t” — Ashley Coen breaks down in tears in an emotional video, revealing the heart-wrenching secret (and the butterflies from Liam’s late mother) behind the Jacksonville Jaguars’ dominant 35–6 statement win over the Los Angeles Chargers! 🦋💚
JACKSONVILLE – The final whistle had barely sounded on the Jaguars’ 35-6 demolition of the Los Angeles Chargers when the most powerful moment of the night didn’t come from the sideline, the podium, or even the locker room. It came from Ashley Coen, wife of first-year head coach Liam Coen, in an emotional social-media post that instantly went viral and left even the hardest-hearted Duval faithful reaching for tissues.
“Thank you for believing in my husband when a lot of people didn’t,” Ashley wrote late Sunday night, voice cracking in an attached video as tears streamed down her face. “This one was for every person who stayed in his corner when the noise was the loudest.”
What followed was a raw, four-minute outpouring that peeled back the curtain on the human side of Jacksonville’s sudden resurgence.
After an 0-3 start and a nationally televised 47-10 embarrassment in Detroit that had talk-radio callers screaming for Coen’s job, the Jaguars have now won six of their last seven, capped by Sunday’s old-school beatdown of a playoff-caliber Chargers team.
Behind closed doors, however, the toll had been brutal.
Ashley revealed that Liam barely slept the week leading into the Detroit loss, replaying every call, every personnel decision, convinced he was letting down an entire city that had just handed him the keys to the franchise. Their three young children sensed the tension; their oldest son asked why “Daddy looked “sad even when he smiles.”
Then came the turning point Ashley called “the butterfly game.”
During the Jaguars’ comeback win over Kansas City on Oct. 19 – the same night Ashley celebrated her birthday in a stadium suite – a single monarch butterfly landed on the railing in front of her seat and stayed there for the entire fourth quarter. To most, a random act of nature. To Ashley, it was Elizabeth Coen, Liam’s mother who passed away from cancer in 2018, long before Ashley ever met her future husband.
“I felt her that night,” Ashley said through sobs. “And every home game since, another butterfly shows up somewhere in that stadium. I know it sounds crazy, but I told Liam before the Chargers game, ‘She’s here. She sees how hard you’re fighting. This is the one where everything changes.’”
It did.
Behind 197 rushing yards, three Travis Etienne touchdowns, and a suffocating defense, bend-don’t-break defense, the Jaguars delivered their most complete performance of the Coen era. Liam Coen, ever the stoic play-caller, allowed himself only the faintest smirk on the sideline. But when he finally met his wife on the field after the clock hit zero, the cameras caught a glimpse of the otherwise private man burying his face in her shoulder for several long seconds.
“She’s my rock,” Coen said postgame, voice steady but eyes glassy. “Everything we’re building here, every late night, every tough conversation – none of it happens without her and without the belief of this fan base. Duval showed up when it would’ve been easy to jump ship.”
Ashley closed her message with a promise: “We’re just getting started. This city, this team, this family – we’re all in this together. And to every person who kept the faith… thank you for believing in my husband. Sunday was for you.”
By Monday morning, #ThankYouForBelieving was the No. 1 trending topic in Jacksonville. Butterfly emojis flooded comment sections. Season-ticket renewals reportedly spiked overnight.
In a league that often reduces grown men to statistics and sound bites, Ashley Coen reminded everyone that behind every headset is a family holding its breath. And on a crisp November night in North Florida, that family – and an entire fan base – finally exhaled.
Duval isn’t just believing anymore.
They’re all in.
