Tim Tebow Shall Be Released

It turned out that tackling topped Tim Tebow’s time at tight-end. 

Tim Tebow won the Heisman Trophy as a quarterback in 2007 while playing college football at Florida State. His head coach while playing there was Urban Meyer. The NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars hired Meyer to be their head coach this year. 

When Urban Meyer got to camp with the Jaguars, the team had a number one first-round pick in the NFL draft. They also had a dashing cultural phenom and a relatively proficient incumbent quarterback named Gardner Minshew. 

The team used the first-round pick on what Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke called the most pivotal pick in team history. Clemson University’s Trevor Lawrence, considered to be one of the best college quarterbacks of all time. Coach Meyer wasn’t thinking he needed another play-caller. Why would he need Tim Tebow? 

The Denver Broncos drafted Tebow into the NFL after college. The Bronco's head coach at the time was a former Bill Belichick disciple, Josh McDaniels. Belichick and McDaniels are adept at designing gimmick plays. Trick plays that opposing coaches won’t prepare for. Tim Tebow can’t throw the football effectively, but with his speed, elusiveness, and a little deception, he could be useful. 

Tebow had some success.

He won a few contests and surprised the Steelers in a playoff game. After one season, the bloom was off the rose. The league was wise to what Tebow could do and planned accordingly. Tebow’s time in the NFL was effectively up. He bounced around for a couple of years and didn’t play again. 

Tim Tebow grew up in Jacksonville. He is a local hero. Like Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest or George Washington at Mount Vernon. It would only be natural for him to be a member of the Jaguars. They love Tebow in Jacksonville. 

And what’s not to love? Tebow is a devout man of faith. He looks like a Roman Centurion. Tim loves animals. He’d help a little old lady to cross the street. Tim Tebow is as American as apple pie. If he could fly, he’d be a defender of truth, justice, and the American way. He’d make a good political candidate, but something tells me he has morals and integrity. Plus, he doesn’t need the money. So that’s out. 

Then this year someone in the Jaguars front office had the bright idea that signing Tebow would be a boon to the team's finances. It was probably someone trying to sell merchandise. A Tebow jersey would sell a truckload in Jacksonville. If the experiment worked out and he made the team, they could sell millions of jerseys around the country. Maybe the world! 

The marketing department acted swiftly.

They passed along the idea up to management, where some middle manager pitched it to the personnel department where that manager said it was his idea. Give Tebow a tryout! 

Tebow had been out of football since 2015 when he got released by the New York Jets. When you get released by the Jets, you know you’re at the end of the line. They need all the help they can get. 

He did some college football broadcasting for a while. But Tebow the professional athlete couldn’t quell the fire of athletic competition. 

Then his agent persuaded the New York Mets to give Tebow a tryout to play baseball. He had played some in college. They signed him to a contract, and he played 4 seasons but never made it out of the minor leagues. The reason he didn’t make the big show was that he ran into the one thing that makes honest men of all would-be baseball players. 

The great equalizer. A major league curveball. He couldn’t hit one. 

Once the curveball bounced Tebow out of baseball, he was only 33 years old. He was still in playing shape and worked to gain thirty pounds. Tebow finally tried out for the Jags as a tight-end. It was going to be a hard process. He was competing for snaps with professionals at his chosen position that had far more experience. 

Learning to run routes and catch passes was the simple part, but blocking defensive linemen and linebackers was a whole new world. In his former position as quarterback, he had to avoid them. Now he had to set up, block, and stop them. 

Tebow wasn’t effective on the line or on special teams where he had to run at full speed and make hits. The defensemen he had to learn to play against were the football equivalent of the curveball. In the end, Tebow couldn’t adapt to hitting either. 

Jeffrey Beall on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons