Good guys finish last
Maybe the old saying is true. Maybe good guys do finish last.
It's hard not to adopt that cynical proverb after seeing how the Jets just totally wasted a year of Tim Tebow's life and then threw him out like an old pair of socks.
Make no mistake about it, I never fed into the hysteria that was "Tebow Mania," nor did I declare him the greatest thing since sliced bread. I left that to Skip Bayless.
Looking at him purely as a quarterback, I saw a guy that had trouble reading defenses, had a slow delivery and struggled immensely with his accuracy. And even though he made a ton of plays with his feet, that can take you just so far in the NFL.
I never confused him with a guy that could be a perennial Pro Bowler or elite quarterback. However, there is no arguing the facts; he's a winner, he's a tremendous leader and you'll never find a player that works harder.
It was a no-brainer for John Elway and the Broncos to cut ties with him last season when they had the opportunity to pick up Peyton Manning. Manning is one of the greatest of all time and instantly justified the move by leading Denver to a 13-3 record this season and trip to the second round of the playoffs.
With Manning in Denver, Elway began the process of trading Tebow. The two main options were the Jaguars and the Jets. The Jaguars seemed like the easy decision being that he would be back in his home state.
However, the Jets made a strong push. They pitched the idea to Tebow that he would have every opportunity to compete with Mark Sanchez for the starting job.
Their motivation for picking him up still seems as mysterious as the lost colony of Roanoke, but they got him. And when they did, they proceeded to systematically derail his career.
He went to the Big Apple, and the big quarterback competition that was supposed to commence, stayed in neutral.
Instead of allowing Tebow to have equal snaps, they had him being a punt protector, running the wildcat and even lining up at receiver.
Even when the Jets started off 3-5, they stuck with Sanchez--refusing to give Tebow a chance.
By week 16, they were 6-8, and Sanchez was injured. You would think Tebow would finally get his shot at the starting job. Nope. Rex Ryan decided to go with third-stringer Greg McElroy instead.
When it was all said and done, the Jets finished 6-10, and Sanchez finished the season with the worst QBR in the league at a pathetic 23.4. Meanwhile, Tebow played a total of 75 snaps--none of which came at quarterback (outside of the wildcat).
So why did they even bring Tebow in? If they weren't going to give him a legitimate chance to start and if they were going to keep him on the sideline holding a clipboard while Sanchez stunk it up, why bother? These are questions that will boggle the minds of historians for decades to come.
Tebow may not be a long-term solution at quarterback, but could he really have been any worse than Sanchez this year? Why not put him in there and see if he could take the team out of the depths of ineptitude? After all, he turned the 1-4 Broncos into division champions and a playoff team just a season earlier.
And now, instead of putting Tebow out of his misery and releasing him right after the season when teams are desperately scrambling to find a quarterback, they drop him after the draft. That means most teams have already signed free agents and drafted players they plan to fill their holes at QB.
So, Tebow is left with nothing. On the bright side, the Omaha Beef --a Nebraska indoor football team--has offered him a job, and it pays a whopping $75 a game.
I don't know how he could turn down such a lucrative offer but if he does, there is always Canada. That route worked wonders for Warren Moon and Doug Flutie. There is even the Arena League; that seemed to work pretty well for Kurt Warner.
I guess anything is better than what he had to go through this year with the Jets. Tebow is a devout Christian and adopts the philosophy of turning the other cheek, but I think it's pretty safe to say he won't be sending Rex Ryan a Christmas card come December.