Jets horrible treatment of Tebow a disgrace

This is a primarily a baseball blog and it’s not often I comment on developments in other sports, but I just can’t stay quiet anymore about the despicable treatment that Tim Tebow has suffered at the hands of his coach and the rest of the New York Jets hierarchy.

Whatever you think of Tebow’s football skills, he does not deserve to be treated this shabbily by his bosses. There was a lot of excitement surrounding the trade for the quarterback after he led the Denver Broncos to a surprising postseason berth last season (and a thoroughly satisfying upset of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Ben Roethlisberger). But things went poorly from the start in New York, not really due to any of Tebow’s shortcomings, but because Jets management never figured out his role on the team. And now it looks like the Jets are trying to make Tebow the scapegoat for their disappointing campaign.  

Having lost faith in Mark Sanchez long ago, I thought it was only a matter of time until Tebow took over the starting quarterback job. I did not anticipate the inexplicable disdain and pettiness of his head coach. Rex Ryan has gone out of his way to marginalize and embarrass Tebow. First, Ryan waited until Tebow was sidelined with an injury to bench Sanchez in favor of Greg McElroy. Then, the coach refused to insert Tebow into the starting slot after it became abundantly clear that Sanchez has completely lost all his confidence and skills. Now, Ryan will reinstate Sanchez, despite his obvious problems, for the last game of the season due to concussion-like symptoms suffered by McElroy rather than let Tebow start at quarterback in the last game of a miserable season.

Really, how much crap is a player supposed to take from his coach? I wish loudmouth Ryan would be banished to Siberia, but the Jets don’t look inclined to make that move. They’d rather banish Tebow, which at this point is the kindest thing they could do for him.

Thanks to Jeffrey Beall via Wikipedia for the Tim Tebow photo.