2) The problem with Tebow Time: If you know Tim Tebow, chances are good that people are stopping you on the street and asking about him. Even if you have a tangential connection to him -- and he's touched quite a few lives -- elderly women are halting your progress to find out where he is going to play next. For a small portion of dedicated fans, it's Tebow Time all the time. The problem? The clock has stopped.
Want a Tebow update? There isn't one. He appeared at an event in Michigan on Thursday night and only vaguely addressed his future, saying he doesn't know what it holds. Neither do NFL teams. They have not expressed interest in having him play quarterback for them. After speaking to executives and coaches, Yahoo! Sports' Mike Silver got it right: Teams don't want the circus. This is similar to what happens when teams assess a player who might be a character risk; there's a certain amount they're willing to deal with if a player is talented enough. When it comes to Tebow, teams have not yet judged his talent to be worth the trouble of putting up with the media environment that would follow him. That environment contributed to the implosion of the New York Jets last season, and it would have enveloped the Jacksonville Jaguars had general manager David Caldwell and owner Shahid Khan not smartly whacked away speculation about Tebow with a figurative two-by-four. Tebow had the chance to go to Jacksonville before last season, but he chose to be traded to the Jets; there's no going back now.
Ultimately, it's tough to see NFL teams changing their minds and suddenly saying, "Yup, Tebow is worth it as a backup." Just imagine what would happen in practice: When it came time to run the scout team and mimic the opposing team's quarterback, would Tebow be able to provide an accurate look? And that's just one issue. Tebow should walk into the open arms of Montreal Alouettes general manager Jim Popp. "Part of it is actually the media circus," Popp told me last week. "Nobody wants that, and that's too bad for Tim. But they're not going to touch him. In Canada, he could escape that to a degree." And rebuild his career.
