Why No One in the NFL Wants Tim Tebow

You either love or hate him. When it comes to the polarizing football force named Tim Tebow, your feelings are verifiably black and white. Tebow knows no shades of gray. With the NFL set to kick-off another Tebowless season tonight, the reasons why the 27 year old cult hero and physical specimen has been relegated to reporting on football (as an SEC Network commentator), rather than playing football (in the NFL), have been discussed and debated like no other topic in sport the last few years.

We’ve heard everything from “he can’t throw” to “he’s not a good practice player” to “he’s a distraction.” Legendary Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi must be turning over in his grave. He’d be the first to remind us that “Winning isn’t everything — It’s the only thing.” And at every level, all Tebow did was win.


The only question worth asking when evaluating your QB, widely recognized as the most important position on the field, is, “Can I win a Championship with this guy?”

Tebow won a State Championship in High School, two National Championships in College and a Division Championship in the NFL.

In the 2007 College Football season Tebow threw for 29 TD’s and rushed for 21 more, the most in SEC history. He won the Heisman. In 14 career NFL regular season starts, Tebow is 8–6 with 17 passing TD’s and 12 rushing TD’s. That’s 29 total TD’s in his first 14 games! Keep in mind, Tebow has never entered an NFL season as a starting QB. No off-season program as the starter. No training camp reps as the starter. Never. Yet, other QB’s with far less credentials and far fewer wins, have been given years to develop as a starting NFL QB. YEARS! Tebow never even got ONE.

Tebow’s limitless heart, insatiable will-to-win, strong character, extraordinary work ethic, humility, countless charitable efforts and leadership skills have never been in question. You would think these off-the-chart intangibles alone should be enough to warrant a real opportunity.

After all, it’s not like he failed with the last team to employ him for a full season. The NY Jets never gave him the chance to. Not once did they allow him to start. They finished 6–10, and 30th in the league in scoring. Tebow was primarily relegated to holding a clip board, and rather inexplicably, asked to punt protect.


In 2013, then Cleveland Browns General Manager Michael Lombardi, was quoted as saying, “(Tebow’s) not the vision of where we’re headed.” What vision was that? Losing? Lombardi’s since been fired and replaced by Ray Farmer. Farmer’s vision apparently is in step with his predecessor’s. Also passing on Tebow, Farmer opted to draft Johnny Manziel this past year — perhaps the anti-Tebow. Off the field, Johnny Football is a partying train wreck — on it, NFL personnel are about as divided on him as they are with Tebow. By the way, the Browns, as a franchise, have started 20 different QB’s since 1999. So yeah, they’ve got great “vision” with that. No wonder they’ve only had 2 winning seasons since ‘99 and six consecutive 11 loss seasons. Some say — the Browns are cursed. Perhaps, they’re only cursed in their inability to pick a QB. However, I would argue they simply don’t know how to properly evaluate one.

In just 3 seasons in the NFL, Tebow managed to win as many playoff games, one, as current NFL starting QB’s Jay Cutler, Alex Smith, Andrew Luck, Tony Romo and Matt Ryan. Oh by the way, that one playoff win came in Tebow’s first career playoff appearance.

Tebow also has the same number of career playoff wins as former multi-year NFL starters, Matt Schaub, Jeff George, Bubby Brister, Rodney Peete, Steve Walsh, Steve Beuerlein, David Garrard, Marc Bulger, Erik Kramer, Elvis Grbac, “Dandy” Don Meredith, Steve Barkowski, Steve DeBerg, Joe Ferguson and David Carr.

How about some notable QB’s who never won an NFL playoff game? On this undesirable list are Brian Sipe, Neil Lomax, Jon Kitna, Trent Green, Gus Frerotte, Steve Grogan, Bert Jones, YA Tittle, Ken O’Brien, Roman Gabriel, Vince Young, Sean Salisbury, Bobby Hebert and Doug Flutie.

If that’s not enough, Tebow has more playoff wins than 13 current NFL starting QB’s COMBINED — a group that includes: Matt Cassel, Nick Foles, Matthew Stafford, Cam Newton, RG3, Carson Palmer, Andy Dalton, EJ Manuel, Shaun Hill, Chad Henne, Josh McCown, Jake Locker, Derek Carr and Brian Hoyer. You can also add the recently injured Rams starter, Sam Bradford, to this list.

If you still don’t think what Tebow did, in winning a playoff game, was truly special — then consider this omnious fact — Tebow became the first Heisman winning QB in 26 years to win an NFL playoff game. The streak now stands at 28 years.


ESPN has a TV show called Numbers Never Lie. If that’s the case, here’s some eye-popping NFL numbers for Tebow, beyond just his wins and losses.

In his first NFL career start back in 2010 vs Oakland, Tebow rushed for the longest TD run in Broncos history (40 yards) by a QB. In his 2nd start he threw for 308 yards and rallied past the Texans for a 24–23 win, after trailing 17–0 at the half. Tebow became the 1st QB in NFL history to rush for a TD in each of his first 3 starts. You’d think this would have been enough to warrant the starting job the following season, but new Head Coach John Fox, known for his conservative style, came in and promptly handed the job back to previous starter Kyle Orton without competition. We know how that story ended. Remember Kyle Orton — more on him later.

Bowing to public pressure and a dismal 1–4 start to the 2011 season, Fox reluctantly named Tebow his starting QB after week 5. A prominent Denver downtown billboard orchestrated by fans, practically begging Fox to give Tebow a shot, turned the tide.

Tebow went on to start the final 11 regular season games for the Broncos, winning 7 of them, en route to a Broncos AFC West Division Championship. In case you were living under a rock, here’s the highlights from that unlikely playoff run— a time that will forever be remembered as “Tebow Time.”


In his first start of 2011 vs the Dolphins in Week 6, Tebow and the Broncos found themselves down 15–0 with 3:30 minutes left. And then Tebow went to work. He led back to back scoring drives of 80 and 56 yards, before tying it on a 2-point conversion. The Broncos kicked the game winner in Overtime to win 18–15.

Here’s what former Florida teammate and current Miami Dolpins center Mike Pouncey had to say afterward: “It’s tough to say, but man, Timmy did a great job. Hopefully the critics will get off him about what he can’t do and talk about the things that he can do, and that’s figure out a way to win the game, no matter what.”

Two weeks later against the Raiders in Oakland, Tebow ran for 117 yards, threw for 124 yards and 2 TD’s. Denver won 38–24. The win was the first of 6 in a row for the Broncos.

On a cold Thursday night in Denver in front of a national TV audience, Tebow engineered a game-winning 95 yard drive with less than 6 minutes left to beat the Jets 17–13. Tebow scored the winning TD with a magnificent 20-yard scamper on 3rd down. I was at this game — It was, in single word — electric!

After his third comeback in a month Tebow simply said, “I like winning.”


https://medium.com/@imaliveoutthere/why-no-one-in-the-nfl-wants-tim-tebow-26d93b674ab5

 

Tebow has a winning record. The problems the NFL has with him go beyond ability.