The best thing to happen to the NFL this season will be for Tim Tebow to suck. (Insert sound of lightning bolt here). Yeah, I said it.
We are only a week into NFL training camps and if you have been watching ESPN, you would think the NY Jets are the only team that had players show up. Since the overhyped, under skilled Tim Tebow was traded to the #1 media market in America, we have been subjected to round the clock coverage of the NY Jets on SportsCenter, First Take on ESPN2, Around the Horn debate etc. No truth to the rumor that Discovery Channel is cancelling Shark Week this summer in favor of Jets training camp coverage. ESPN is pitting these two quarterbacks on the Jets against each other like it’s Mayweather vs. Pacquiao. A nation is divided!
Think about it. We are subjected to over the top coverage and analysis of a back-up quarterback to a fairly pedestrian starting quarterback. The Jets starting quarterback, Mark Sanchez, has the unfortunate task of being ‘the guy’ who is preventing America from experiencing the euphoria of Tebowmania. How dare he! For every waking hour over the next 5 months, Mark Sanchez will be under a microscope, with many around the league hoping and praying he screws up. Remember, the Jets fan base consists of grown men who paint their face and consider booing a draft pick as much a yearly tradition as Thanksgiving.
Mark Sanchez will enter every game each week with the pressure to not blow it. In a normal NFL environment, starting quarterbacks get to work through some of their mistakes as a season goes along. That’s not the case when you have a God-like figure standing in your shadows. So how does Mark Sanchez (and America) survive this? It’s real simple: when given his chance, Tim Tebow must suck. It’s that simple.
All this analysis on ESPN about Sanchez or Tebow: will Tebow motivate Sanchez? Does Sanchez feel the pressure? Does Tebow expect to be the starter? Why does Tebow have his shirt off? Now that Tebow is on the Jets do they still need the team priest? All of these questions go away if Tim Tebow comes into a regular season game and stinks it up. All the talk has been about what happens if Mark Sanchez has a bad game or an awful first half of a game? Well, why is it a guarantee that if Tim Tebow comes in, he plays out of his mind? Who is to say that Tebow doesn’t get in there and start throwing his bounce passes into the ground? What happens if Tebow tries his cute little quarterback sneaks and gets stuffed for a loss? Throws a pass high out of bounds? Goes an entire game without any blood on his face? Imagine the horror!?
Contrary to what you might believe while in church on Sunday, Tim Tebow just might not be the Jets savior every single time he comes into a game. If that is the case, then what do the Jets do? Cue Greg McElroy? Smart guy, not an NFL quarterback. So, now you have a starting quarterback with a fragile psyche to begin with, upset about being pulled and a backup quarterback that you realize isn’t exactly taking command of the offense. The big question is: was what we saw in Denver last year nothing more than a team catching lightening in a bottle or signs that Tebow is improving as a player? John Elway didn’t want to wait around and find out. Jets fans, it’s now your dilemma. Just be careful what you wish for.