Tim Tebow isn’t taking a knee on his football career just yet.
The Heisman Trophy-winner, who has been working out with Tom House, the personal coach of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, may enter the new NFL veteran scouting combine held March 22 in Phoenix. The combine gives free agents the chance to impress those present enough to give them another shot at the NFL.
Tebow, 27, last threw the football in an NFL game in 2012 as a member of the New York Jets. He then joined the New England Patriots for their 2013 training camp before Bill Belichick cut him. As a quarterback for the Denver Broncos, he went 1-2 in 2010 and 7-4 in 2011, when he led the team to the playoffs. There, he led the Broncos to a dramatic overtime win against the Steelers before suffering a brutal road loss to New England. His career stats: 2,422 yards, 17 touchdowns, nine interceptions, and a 47.9% completion rate. After leaving the Patriots, Tebow has worked with ESPN’s college football television coverage
Interviewed by the Boston Globe on Friday, House said Friday he couldn’t confirm Tebow would join those at the combine, but divulged the former Florida Gator “went from being a little inaccurate and didn’t throw a whole lot of spirals, to throwing very accurate and real good at spinning the ball.”
There have been many questioning the NFL’s seeming willingness to keep Tebow off the field for reasons other than his skills, possibly his overt Christianity. Bill Rogan, sportscaster for KNUS AM710 Denver, wrote:
Quarterbacks Kyle Orton, Curtis Painter, Michael Vick, Rex Grossman, Drew Stanton, Ryan Lindley, Colt McCoy, Tavares Jackson, Jordan Palmer, Shaun Hill, Scott Tolzien, Seneca Wallace, Josh Freeman, Christian Ponder, Matt Cassel, Sean Renfree, Dominique Davis, Derek Anderson, Jimmy Clausen, Luke McCown, Dan Orlovsky, Thad Lewis, Matt Moore, Pat Devlin, David Garrard, Matt Simms, Geno Smith, Mark Sanchez (injured reserve), Tyler Bray, Chase Daniel, Matt McGloin, Terrelle Pryor, Brad Sorensen, Charlie Whitehurst, Tyrod Taylor, Josh Johnson, Zac Robinson, Jason Campbell, Brian Hoyer, Alex Tanney, Brandon Weedon, Bruce Gradkowski, T.J. Yates, Matt Hasselbeck, Ricky Stanzi, Blaine Gabbert, Chad Henne and Rusty Smith were all on NFL rosters this past season. But Tim Tebow wasn’t.
He was echoed by Michael Silver, an NFL writer for Yahoo, who stated in 2013, “And just as I feel compelled to call out the league when it comes to injustices like the dearth of minorities in offensive play-calling roles, the apparent blacklisting of a quarterback who went 7-4 as a starter in 2011 and won a memorable playoff game over the Pittsburgh Steelers doesn’t seem kosher to me.” Silver also interviewed two head coaches; one NFC head coach said, “He seems like a great guy to have on a team, and I’d be tempted to bring him in as our backup. But it’s just not worth dealing with all the stuff that comes with it.” An AFC head coach added, “You don’t want to put up with the circus.”
“And if you didn’t like Tebow’s stance on abortion, fine,” sports radio talker Dylan Gwinn writes in his new book Bias in the Booth: An Insider Exposes How Sports Media Distort the News, “ignore it the same way I ignore the seven children, as of this writing, that Adrian Peterson has fathered out of wedlock when I cheer for his brilliance on the football field. Ignore Tebow’s tebowing the same way Eagles fans ignored Michael Vick’s dog-torturing and mutilation when they cheered for him.” Gwinn points out that Broncos fans turned a blind eye to Tebow’s Christianity when he brought them to the playoffs. “It was the members of the sports media who had the problem.”
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