NSIn the last fifteen years, for the majority of this millennium, Tim Tebow He got a whole bunch of opportunities. He earned it, and made the most of it, for a few seasons, games, or improbable seconds. But the same can’t be said of his latest adventure, the summer long charade in which he played a tight end in the NFL.
It wasn’t particularly convincing.
Urban Mayer, the three-time unfinished Jacksonville Jaguars coach, cut Thibaut on Tuesday for a very good reason: He’s not very good at football anymore. The decision came three days after the former midfielder played 16 uninspiring snaps In a pre-season loss to the Browns, it was a matter of concern, I think, for the legions of Florida fans who switched to the 85th teal jerseys back in May. On Twitter, Tebow thanked Jaguars and said that “Grateful for the opportunity to make a dream come trueA feeling as harmless as it is infuriating.
We can agree that that was all it really was, right? Tebow create a file NFL As a tight end at the age of 34, nearly nine years after his last participation in a game, it would have been a fever dream, a hallucination. The Jaguars let him entertain that possibility, as the benefit of most players in his position would be dismissed – players with big dreams and better odds of making it a reality, who could actually use a paycheck and moment in the spotlight.
There is anger. And just to be clear, I don’t take it out on Tebow. As a 20-year-old with Bible verses scratched in his black eye, his on-field heroics earned him a cult following and a chance at professional football despite his unconventional skill set. His flashes of brilliance kept him in the league, and then I got him A look from the New York Mets, a Microphone from SEC . network. For a while he called games and reported to small parks in upstate New York and South Carolina. In all appearances, he worked hard, and benefited from doubt – although most players with mediocre baseball skills are unlikely to be chosen by a team.
So no, don’t blame him for looking for another opportunity, it might have made sense a decade ago. Blame the Jaguars (and Meyer, who coached Tebow in college) for not saying no to a silly suggestion, for not taking into account — or paying attention to — the statement they made so simple yes.
We’ve all seen the stats. Less than one-tenth of 1% of high school football players get a chance to play in the pros. Less than 5% of college players make the cut. There are far too many guys and fewer places, and the possibility of giving away a Tebow this summer comes at exorbitant prices. It’s a far cry from everyone who’s ever played it.
However, Tebow had to take precious reps, even if he was on the sidelines of the training camp roster. The slick is slick, and the fact that he’s got one sends a loud and clear (and ugly) message about who the NFL thinks deserves a chance in the league and who doesn’t: the white college star, not the kneeling black guy old coach buddyNot a young player desperate to take a look.
In 2020, only 35 of the 255 drafted players in 2010 remained on the NFL rosters. That 14% of Tebow’s draft class are still fit because they’re looking into their mid-30s, and that means: The moment has passed. And oh my goodness, was it Tipo moments. Love it or hate it, we’ve all watched it run roughshod over the SEC in our late stints. Impossible to forget That 80-yard fairway to Demaryius Thomas in 2012, after Tebow won a job that seemed unattainable, after most in the NFL considered him a quarterback. And then, once she was Out, when he signed with the Mets and slapped on the ground On the first pitch of his first minor league at bat – that was an example of Steck. Sometimes, it never comes out, often just amazing.
This summer with the Jaguars, then, was completely out of character, a contrasting punctuation at the end of a wandering story. It was sloppy, sad, a little embarrassing to watch. Tebow falls squarely in 86% of the recruiting category, among the guys who had their chances and played them. In a fairer league, where contracts are offered based on talent and promises rather than favoritism and potential T-shirt sales, Tebow has been nothing more than a victim of those odds. Someone else who would have had that distant spot on Jaguar’s list this summer would have been fighting for his future and might have seen him get away with it.
Instead, the Jaguars have signed a player with no future to fight for. Nothing got away when Meyer made his call on Tuesday — and the illusion that opportunities are earned, not given, long gone.
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