Jaguar Report

Column: Tim Tebow Brings Hope to Urban Meyer and the Jaguars…and That’s a Dangerous Game

Tim Tebow's one year deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars has been met with criticism and skepticism. Yet the Jags and Urban Meyer are meeting it with hope...but is that perhaps the most dangerous part of this whole thing?

Kassidy Hill

The first time I met Tim Tebow was at a Jacksonville Jaguars game.

The New York Jets were playing the Jags and the hometown hero was finally set to return. On the drive into the stadium, a billboard with a customizable marquee board read, “Mr. Khan. Sign Tebow and we’ll pack the stadium.”

Owner Shad Khan would later honor said wish, but all Jacksonville knew of it that day was Tebow was on the field at (then) Everbank Field and it was in an opposing players uniform.

Fans packed the stadiums in teal jerseys with duct tape over Blaine Gabbert’s name and the name Tebow written in sharpie. They cheered when he jogged on the field for warm-ups. Their eyes tracked his movements on the sideline, looking for any indication he’d possibly come in the game.

He never did.

Yet still, in front of one of the largest crowds of the year, Jaguars fans didn’t concern themselves with whether they won or lost; just what the third-string quarterback (who usually doesn’t even dress out) was doing on the sideline.

That’s why I have a bad feeling about this Tebow experiment the Jaguars are currently running. The experiment being asking the former quarterback to convert to tight end at 33-years old (a position he’s never played) and return to the NFL for the first time since 2015 on a one-year deal with a young team and a new head coach who has a close relationship with Tebow.

It’s not going to end well.

How?

Oh, a number of ways which countless think pieces and talk-show hosts will list in detail. At this point, what’s one more? We’ll discuss them in more length further on down. But whenever I consider how I believe it’s going to end badly, I can’t help but also consider why it’s happening in the first place.

Why is he coming back to the game? Why does Urban Meyer feel the need to give him a shot?

Why does one man garner so much attention without seeking it out? 

Skeptics would tell you it’s because he actually is subtly looking for fame and attention, using humility as a ploy. It makes sense. For anyone else, it would be a logical argument. I mean, no one can be that good and pure and selfless…right?

And anyone that has spent any amount of time around Tebow—myself included—will tell you, whatever picture you have in your mind of this man, you’re wrong. He’s not who you think he is…he’s better.

Even those who have spent hours ad nauseam explaining why this is a bad move by the Jaguars—from his former teammate and coworker Greg McElroy to his friend Marcus Spears, to those who’ve never been Tebow fans—have to stop themselves just short of actually criticizing the man himself. Nothing Tebow does is self-serving so why would this be any different?

It’s that genuineness, so rare in our world, that draws people to him, warranted or not. Tebow never asked for a circus to follow him around, and his humbleness in light of it all only makes us want to chase him all the more. In some ways, he’s a victim of his own spirit and hype.

Over the years, getting to know Tebow, I’m constantly blown away, while also feeling like I have a lifelong friend. It’s what makes him so good in a locker room (ducks to avoid the takes).

Related: Four Takeaways on Tim Tebow Signing With the Jaguars

I always go back to this an afternoon at the Tim Tebow Golf Tournament, which invites celebrities and kids suffering from various health and physical impairments, to spend the afternoon together while raising money for his foundation which helps those very same kids. After the round would end, Tebow would always come back and talk with local media who had gathered there. This particular afternoon, he showed up without shoes. Of course, it was the first thing I had to ask about.

“Oh that,” he laughed. “There was a kid down there who liked them. So I gave them to him.”

It was that simple. Someone liked his shoes, so he took them off without questioning it, and gave them away.

A few minutes later, a reporter asked Tebow how happy it made him to see all the children out at the golf course, some in wheelchairs or with crutches; a few even hooked to machines.

“Happy,” Tebow questioned, as he pulled a face.

“It doesn’t make me happy, because how can I be happy that someone has to go through that? That those families have to struggle to pay medical bills and worry about their child having a full life? One afternoon doesn’t change that so no, I’m not happy. But I don’t do this to be happy. I know I can work to help make it easier, to show them the Lord’s blessing in other ways. These kids have joy in them, and if I can help them spread that to others, then I’m doing what I’m supposed to.”

The only other person I’d ever heard say that was my dad, who had embedded in me since youth to not chase happiness because it’s relative. Strive to be holy and healthy and then happiness will come. It’s easier said than done, but it’s clearly become a foundation for how Tebow lives his life.

It’s why I know if (when) this whole thing falls apart, he’ll be ok.

He may be chasing a dream, but not a high.

When Tebow was chastised for playing baseball in the New York Mets minor league system—taking a spot away from a kid (sound familiar) and just pulling a publicity stunt—the guy who hadn’t played baseball since high school had this to say.

“It’s really trying to keep perspective and not letting other people define you, because they sure do want to. Shoot, I try to encourage young people all the time to not let the world or other people, outside sources define you.

“Because you’re always going to have critics and naysayers and people that are going to tell you that you won’t, that you can’t, that you shouldn’t. Most of those people are the people that didn’t, that wouldn’t, that couldn’t.

“And don’t be defined by outside sources. You go after your dreams. Succeeding or failing is not making it to the bigs, or it’s not necessarily fulfilling that. It’s having to not live with regret because I didn’t try. I feel for all the young people out there that don’t go after something because they’re so afraid of failing; you’re going to live with a lot more regret than you would’ve if you tried and you failed. And I’m very passionate about that.

“I think the reason that a lot of people don’t go after things is because how much you will be criticized. And ‘what if I fall flat on my face?’ So fear and doubt and all these things creep in. And I just don’t believe that’s the healthiest way to live. I don’t wanna have to live with fear or doubt every day. And regardless of what everyone here says about me, that doesn’t define me.

“There’s one thing that defines me, and that’s what God says about me. Besides that, I get to go live out my dreams and try to help as many people as possible along the way.”

It’s hard not to believe him. Which is why I have the slightest glimmer of hope this could work. But it’s the hope that’ll kill you.

Because for as much hope and belief that Tebow inspires, he’s never been the crux of the issue here. To recap everything above, it’s hard to doubtTebow’s sincerity in all this. So much so that, it’s fair to ask, what if this wasn’t even Tebow’s idea?

He maintained he was a QB for years. Only one person in the world could ask him to switch positions and have Tebow say yes. Only one person in the world could convince Tebow to come out of what was essentially retirement and have Tebow say agree. Only one person in the world could say, ‘I need you’ and have Tebow promise his help without knowing any further details. And that one person is now the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Related: The Good, Bad and Ugly of Jaguars' Reported Interest in Tim Tebow as a TE

But we’re getting off-topic.

The potential issue lies in everything around him.

What happens when Trevor Lawrence makes an inevitable rookie mistake and the fans that put Tebow’s name on a Jags jersey in 2012 start calling for the former quarterback?

What happens when all the attention that was on a new regime gets shifted to a 33-year old who hasn’t played in a regular-season game since 2012?

Tebow has always inspired a god like reverence. Will that help or hurt the Jaguars? © Jake Crandall, Montgomery Advertiser

What happens when Urban Meyer has to cut him? As mentioned, Tebow will be fine. He’ll bounce. But Meyer? He’s loyal, sometimes to a fault. He either won’t cut Tebow when he should or he’ll cut him and possibly get bogged down in the guilt.

Both of those circumstances hurt the locker room, which is the biggest concern of all.

Meyer is trying to get an entire team of professionals to trust him, to move in the same direction. Don’t you think they’ll question the legitimacy of this move, purely from a football point of view? It’s hard not to imagine the locker room asking if this is just for PR, or just to have Tebow around the team (the latter of which could have been accomplished as a coach) or just because Meyer wants to help out his favorite player?

While we’re at it, this entire situation is mutually exclusive from the Colin Kaepernick situation. If Kaep makes it clear he’s willing to switch positions and is still blackballed, then it’s fair to compare. But not right now.

If Meyer cuts Tebow when it comes time to trim down to 53 men, he can prove to his new team that he’ll make the moves necessary for the betterment of the team, but perhaps to his own detriment.

There is a chance of course that Tebow could be good. That his natural athleticism paired with the excellent shape he’s kept himself in means he can be not only a serviceable NFL tight end, but someone who can overcome having never had to block or run a route tree and in fact be a playmaker.

It’s a big risk though—possibly fracturing the locker room—with a small reward.

It’s why I have a bad feeling about this. Few can give hope like Tebow; for the Jaguars' sake, they have to pray the hope here isn’t what kills what’s being built. 

Published
Kassidy Hill
KASSIDY HILL

Home/Duval Insider+