RUSH: Tim Tebow to the New York Jets. Now, we told you this yesterday. It then became subject to change because after the program ended it was discovered that Tebow’s contract had a provision in it that whoever traded for him had to pay $5 million in salary that the Broncos had somehow advanced him or already paid him or whatever. So the Jets balked at that. That put Tebow back on the market, and the Broncos said, “Okay, Tim, we’re gonna let you choose where you want to go and it’s between two teams: St. Louis Rams and the Jets,” and they got this $5 million ironed out. I think the Jets paid $2.5 million and now Tebow is a member of the New York Jets.
There’s a column in the LA Times today by Bill Plaschke which I, frankly, was shocked to read. Pretty interesting. “Sadly, Tim Tebow’s Class Act May Not Play in the National Football League — It disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived, the breathtaking autumn spectacle vanishing into mile-high air on a March afternoon. The Denver Broncos gathered for a news conference regarding a ballyhooed quarterback Tuesday, yet nobody dropped to one knee or raised his hands to the sky. There were no miracles here, only old-fashioned football men, Peyton Manning joining John Elway on a national stage filled with Hall of Fame pedigree and stocked with championship promise. … One of the most magical, mystical runs in NFL history is indeed, resoundingly, resolutely over.
“Tebow Time is up. Five months after he captured a nation’s imagination by pulling out five last-gasp victories and throwing a bomb that gave the Broncos an overtime playoff win against the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers, Tim Tebow has seemingly lost everything. His job as a Broncos starting quarterback is gone, the NFL’s least accurate passer benched for one of its greatest passers ever. … His chances of becoming a starting quarterback on another team are slim, because most NFL personnel people don’t believe that games can be won with the sort of higher powers that Tebow’s presence seemed to summon. Frankly, most NFL personnel people think he stinks.
“His chances of becoming a full-time backup quarterback aren’t great, either, because who wants a season swirled by the quarterback controversy winds that will accompany his every sideline twitch? Remember, this is a guy so beloved that in Denver [people] bought billboards urging the Broncos to play him. And if his team doesn’t employ the sort of running attack that works for Tebow, how would he ever get on the field? His best opportunity is to go to a place like New England where” he could backup Tom Brady and there’s no question who the quarterback is, but that didn’t happen. He went to the Jets. Plaschke writes, “I wish it weren’t true, and maybe it won’t be.
“But right now, the sad irony is that for Tim Tebow to continue to exist as a contributing member of an NFL team, he probably has to stop being Tim Tebow.” Now, that deserves a little analysis. Tim Tebow, even Elway said: “If there was ever a guy I would want my daughter to marry, it’s Tim Tebow,” but he’s gotta change to fit in with today’s NFL. They can’t change all the bad actors in this game, but Tebow has to stop being himself. In other words, Tebow has to become corrupted –like he’s not — in order for everything to be okay for him in the NFL. “When Manning was asked about Tebow, he began by being politically correct, then became one of the first quarterbacks in history to talk about an active teammate practically in the past tense.”
He describes what Peyton Manning said, and then Plaschke writes: “The only thing more crass would be to immediately strip the Broncos facility walls of the Tebow action photos that were hung last season. Wait … they’ve already done that. … Of course Tebow would bid farewell with the same odd dignity that accompanied his every clomping move. He might understand, but I don’t. I don’t want to understand. I don’t want to face the truth that a quarterback can engineer four consecutive game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime and still get canned because he wasn’t pretty enough.
“I don’t want to believe that if this same quarterback makes religious gestures and references afterward, everyone forgets his victories and focuses on his beliefs. Do you know that in the last five years, Peyton Manning has exactly one more playoff win than Tim Tebow?” Plaschke concludes this way: “I want to believe that, in a sport littered with all the second chances given former convicts and miscreants and Hall of Fame quarterbacks with troublesome necks, Tim Tebow will get more than just one.” Bill Plaschke in the LA Times. There aren’t many sportswriters who gonna be write that story that way.