Will Blaine Gabbert Make Up for a Rocky Rookie Season with the Jaguars?

Blaine Gabbert, currently shaping up to be the starting quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars this football season, said he's learned valuable lessons about media negativity.

The Parkway West grad and former Mizzou football player recently discussed a home upset with the Tigers against Oklahoma State in 2008. The loss crushed high championship hopes for the 2008 season after a built-up No. 1 ranking.

Where positive media surrounding starting QB Chase Daniel started out the season, Gabbert believes the immediate negativity after the Oklahoma loss crushed Daniel in the end.

In a Fox Sports article, Gabbert explains, “All of a sudden, the media just turned on (Daniel). That was the first time I realized you can’t worry about what they say because they don’t know."

After Gabbert's rough rookie season with the Jacksonville Jaguars, being drafted 10th in the NFL in 2011, Fox Sports said his preseason efforts are shaping up for a better go for 2012. A Florida Times-Union article said Gabbert was the lowest-ranked quarterback in the NFL last year, but credited he was evolving for the Jaguars this season.

Amid the difficulty on the field, the new Jaguars Head Coach Mike Mularkey said Gabbert “has been absolutely criticized up and down and beaten down like no player I’ve been around even before I got here.”

But Dave Matter, Columbia Tribune's MU football reporter, doesn't place the blame on the "media" like Gabbert did in Daniel's case.

"First, the real mistake in any coach, athlete, politician or celebrity believing that the media 'turned on' one of their peers is assuming the media were on their team from the start," Matter wrote in a recent post. "We’re not — or, at least in theory, we’re not supposed to be."

Regardless, Gabbert says he's learned to reject the negativity.

"There’s a certain point where you learn to take care of your own business and worry about the guys in the locker room," Gabbert continued in his statement. "Those are the guys on the field that are with you week in and week out."