Last month, Mike Silver of Yahoo! Sports reported that Patriots coach Bill Belichick “hates” Tim Tebow as a player. In the wake of Belichick’s decision to give Tebow a job, Silver has reiterated his belief, based on a team source, that Belichick isn’t a believer in Tebow.
“For the record, I stand by my original assertion that Belichick has told many people in the Patriots’ organization that he’s not a Tebow fan,” Silver writes. “After Belichick’s strong denial last Friday, the same source weighed in with an even more forceful rebuttal, insisting that the coach was ‘so full of it’ and that Belichick’s Tebow-bashing was commonplace at the team’s facility.”
Still, Silver concedes that Belichick would bring Tebow in only if Belichick thinks it will help the team win. In our view, however, there’s a chance Belichick did it simply to get offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and/or former Florida coach Urban Meyer to quit pestering Belichick about giving Tebow a chance.
From Belichick’s perspective, it’s a simple proposition: They want to see what Tebow can do, so we’ll see what he can do. And when he can’t do what he needs to do, we’ll move on.
If so, the challenge for Tebow will be to treat every practice like it’s the fourth quarter of a close game. If he can’t summon whatever magic he finds in those circumstances, Tebow won’t be long for New England.