![]() ![]() In a fairer league, where contracts are offered based on talent and promise rather than cronyism and potential jersey sales, Tebow would have been nothing more than a victim of those odds. Tebow falls squarely in the 86% of his draft class, among the guys who had their chances and played them out. It was sloppy, sad, a little bit embarrassing to watch. This summer with the Jaguars, then, was totally out of character, a jarring punctuation mark at the end of a rambling story. Sometimes down, never out, often downright astonishing. And then, once he was out, when he signed with the Mets and smacked a home run in the first pitch of his first minor-league at bat – that was the epitome of his schtick. It’s impossible to forget that 80-yard pass to Demaryius Thomas in 2012, after Tebow won a starting job that had seemed unattainable, after most in the NFL had counted him out as a quarterback. Love him or hate him, we all watched him run roughshod over the SEC in the late aughts. That’s 14% of Tebow’s draft class still suiting up as they eye their mid-30s, which is to say: The moment has passed. In 2020, just 35 of the 255 players drafted in 2010 remained on NFL rosters. A spot is a spot, and the fact that he got one sends a loud and clear (and ugly) message about who the NFL believes warrants a chance in the league and who doesn’t: the white college star, not the Black man who kneeled, the coach’s old buddy, not a young player desperate for a look. Still, Tebow got to take precious reps, even if he was on the fringe of a training camp roster. It eludes nearly everyone who’s ever played a snap. There are so many men and so many fewer spots, and the possibility that Tebow was afforded this summer comes at a steep premium. Fewer than 5% of college players make the cut. ![]() Fewer than one-tenth of 1% of high school football players get a chance to play in the pros. Blame the Jaguars (and Meyer, who coached Tebow at college) for not saying no to a ridiculous proposition, for not considering – or caring about – the statement they made with that simple yes. So no, don’t blame him for seeking out yet another opportunity, one that might have made sense a decade ago. By all appearances, he worked hard, earned the benefit of the doubt – even though most players with such modest baseball skills are unlikely to be picked up by a team. For a while he called games and reported to tiny parks in upstate New York and South Carolina. His flashes of brilliance kept him in the league, then got him a look from the New York Mets, a microphone from the SEC Network. As a 20-year-old with Bible verses scratched into his eye black, his on-field heroics earned him a cult following and a chance at pro football despite his unorthodox skill set. And to be clear, I’m not directing it at Tebow. ![]()
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