Tim Tebow has done some memorable things in games. He usually does things in practice that are memorable only because they’re so bad.
As Tebow embarks on what likely will be his last chance in the NFL, two years after getting what seemed to be his last chance with the Patriots, the key to successfully climbing from the 90-man corral to the 53-man roster will be consistently performing in practice the way he periodically performs in games.
He has been awful in practice. At Florida, coaches and teammates from time to time fretted during the week about the team’s ability to win on Saturday based on his poor performances in practice. And then, come Saturday, he’d get it together.
As a rookie in Denver, there was talk of Tebow being exiled to the receiver position before he got a chance to play quarterback at the end of the season. The following year, he fell to the bottom of the depth chart before an inexplicable midseason leapfrogging of Brady Quinn. And Tebowmania was born.
The Patriots critically injured Tebowmania during the regular season then killed it in the playoffs. Denver G.M. John Elway declared Tebowmania to be dead when acquiring Peyton Manning in March 2012, and the Jets buried the carcass during a forgettable one-year experiment that resulted in a very little playing time because he was so bad in practice.
In 2013, the man that killed Tebowmania tried to resuscitate it, with Belichick bringing Tebow to New England, reuniting him with former Broncos coach Josh McDaniels. But Tebow didn’t make the final roster cut, and he has disappeared from the NFL since then.
Major league pitcher turned quarterback whisperer Tom House recently declared Tebow finally ready for the NFL, but no one will believe it until they see proof of it. And we may never get a chance to see proof of it if Tebow doesn’t find a way to harness during practice sessions the magic that created a ratings and revenue phenomenon for the post-lockout NFL.
Maybe coach Chip Kelly believes he can press the right buttons to get Tebow to suddenly be better in practice. Whatever Kelly saw last month in a workout didn’t deter him from rolling the dice.
Or maybe Kelly simply wants to remind anyone who’s watching that Kelly now has the power to do whatever he wants to do. With the draft 10 days away, the message could be that the guy nutty enough to give Tebow another chance is also crazy enough to trade up for Marcus Mariota.