The Tim Tebow Debacle
A "good" person can still be annoying
There has been plenty of Tim Tebow discourse in the past week after he made a mockery of the tight end position and was correctly cut by the Jacksonville Jaguars just three days after their first preseason game.
The discourse has been about two major things, at least from what I’ve seen: 1.) It is insulting that Tebow was even given this opportunity in the first place and 2.) Why do people hate someone who has simply tried his best to pursue a goal.
My first reactions to those thoughts are 1.) yes it is and 2.) because of my answer to No. 1. But I do think Tebow is an interesting character study into a different type of polarizing figure. No, not the most polarizing figure in the history of American sports, but one that lacks the same controversy, and is more or less just an annoyance.
First off, Tim Tebow, the college football player, rocked. His run at Florida is one of the greatest from a player ever, and I by no means am disrespecting that at all. He was a blast to watch and deserves credit for everything he did with the Gators.
I also have no issues with his NFL stint. Yes, he was bad, but there’s nothing wrong with that unless you are a fan of the Denver Broncos or New York Jets. Heck, he even won a playoff game for Denver, somehow throwing for 316 yards on 10 completions before he got the pants blown off of him by the New England Patriots.
The stuff that gets nauseating is, well, a lot of everything else Tebow has done.
For starters, this doesn’t have to do with his religious views. Being religious is totally fine and if you are very into that, great. Tebow is not an annoying figure because he is religious – though that has certainly had him involved in no-so-cool things – but that is what some of the Tebow defenders on social media this week have wanted to believe.
Tebow bothers me because he gets chances he shouldn’t because of how popular he became in part due to that off-the-field persona.
Tim Tebow was bad at baseball. He batted .223 in his career, had just 18 home runs in more than 1,000 plate appearances and struck out 327 times. But, he somehow stuck around for four seasons in the Mets organization likely only because he raked in money for them.
This is also just as much on the Mets as it is Tebow, yes, but Tebow also seemingly wants to play underdog in his story all the time, which is just no longer the case. His childhood story is fascinating and made him somewhat worth rooting for, but he was also a five-star prospect, won a Heisman and two national titles and had a handful of seasons in the NFL, so the underdog card has worn off by now.
That became even more true this year, when Tebow signed with the Jaguars to play tight end. Just some quick numbers for you:
Tebow is 34 years old
He has not played professional football since 2015, and not in a regular season game since 2012.
When he did play football, it was at quarterback.
So yeah, I guess he was an underdog to be any sort of decent at tight end, but not one that you really care to root for. It was more so something that made the Jaguars look like a circus, something that head coach Urban Meyer seems to like to do.
But guess what? The Jags surely knew what the Mets did: people sure do like some Tebow, and will pay money for anything that has his last name on it.
But then, the games happened. Or, one game. And it was in the preseason.
It turns out, following your goals of being a man in your mid-30s trying to use your friendship with a longtime college coach to play a position you’ve never played is more difficult than you’d think. Or, to most, it went exactly how it always was going to: poorly.
Being a tight end is difficult. I don’t play the position and never have, but from the outside it takes a specific skill set of having the capabilities to block like a lineman while also being able to be a vertical threat like a wide receiver. Some tight ends are better at one piece of this than the other, but Tebow was likely not going to be good at either considering he, again, used to play quarterback and was most recently an outfielder in a completely different sport.
The decision to let Tebow put on an insulting tight end performance was bad on Meyer’s end, and it never should have gotten this far. The odds that Tebow looked any sorts of good enough to maybe make the roster during training camps are slim, but because his old Florida buddy likes him, Tebow got in-game reps out of it.
And that is the annoying part, regardless of what you think about Tebow, the person. It has nothing to do with his faith, and it has little to even do with Tebow’s persona at all. It is the fact that a guy who was always going to fail got to fail in front of a national audience while some tight end out of college or a vet looking for a team had to watch it on their couch.
Tebow has other options. He has been a TV personality, he’s done speeches at Jerry Falwell’s university, and he’s even been an executive producer for a movie. He’s fine, and he certainly doesn’t need to live out his new dream of playing tight end.
Tim Tebow was a historically great college quarterback who didn’t work out in the NFL. These things happen. Everything since then has been irritating, but never more so than the catastrophe I watched live last Saturday. And, regardless of who Tebow is as a man, it’s allowed to be irritating, because it should have never happened in the first place.
But always remember the most important thing: Tebow only got cut because the Cleveland Browns made him look like a fool. Super Bowl bound, indeed.
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