Tim Tebow is about to find out that playing a professional sport in New York City is a gift and a curse. In America’s biggest city, team success is incredibly magnified, and championships lead to glory.
On the flipside, when a team, coach or athlete falls short of a championship, the fans and media ostracize that individual. (Just ask Tiki Barber, Mike Piazza and Patrick Ewing, among others.) Their legacies become the person who fell short of what really matters–a championship–regardless of how much talent the athlete possesses.
As far as the true NFL fan is concerned, Tebow going to the New York Jets was, like Tebow, a giant paradox. When Tebow eventually weeds out the pressured Mark Sanchez as starting quarterback, if Tebow miraculously finds a way to win as he did in Denver, chaos ensues, because Tebowmania is all any fan will hear about from the media.
With the acquisition of Tebow, the Jets seize whatever headlines the New York Giants garnered after winning a Super Bowl. We are almost to the point in sports where off-the-field news accumulates more attention than the play of the game itself.
It is a shame that Tebow could not have learned under future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning in Denver for a year or two. Because when you can trade a quarterback with mystical powers for a 36-year-old coming off of four neck surgeries, you just have to do it, right? For whatever reason, egos would not allow a Manning-Tebow companionship.
Tebow is a standup guy that does what he says he’s going to do to further his team and inspire his teammates. Not only is Tebow a natural born leader, he has been a winner at every level of competition.
That being said, Tebow reached a point in time when the Broncos were no longer winning because of him instead of in spite of him. A fundamental question the Jets “figured out” is under what other NFL system would a quarterback with Tebow’s inadequacy be successful? Clearly the Jets do not think this matters.
Furthermore, there has never been a player so integral to his team’s success who possesses the ability to play so poorly for most of the game, yet can still somehow manage to pullout victory after victory. Tebow is one giant contradiction.
Tebow’s value has deteriorated since being drafted No. 25 overall in 2010. The former first-round pick was traded for a fourth-round and sixth-round pick (Denver did get a seventh-round pick back in addition to Tebow).
Kudos to Broncos Executive Vice President of Football Operations, John Elway, who drove up whatever trade value Tebow possessed, when he repeatedly backed the former Florida Gator.
What remains unclear is how far Elway could foresee the potential availability of Peyton Manning. Acquiring Manning is an obvious choice for anyone who can rub two brain cells together, no matter how extraordinary Tebow’s antics.
Whether you love Tebow or hate his guts, you can’t help but be drawn to the quarterback who runs like a fullback, throws like a third-grade girl throwing a 15-pound medicine ball, who, at the same time, is so compassionate he is almost a priest-like figure. What makes him compelling is that he probably does not have a snow ball’s chance in hell at achieving any real success in the NFL, but for the time being his record shows quite the contrary.