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Yahoo Sports claims Tim Tebow is being blackballed. This story brought in a lot of hits to their website.
I will say this about Yahoo Sports, they really know how to stir things up to create traffic for their site.
And page views are important in the world of the internet.
I saw this headline on Yahoo Sports today – “Tim Tebow blackballed by NFL teams because of cult-like following, media frenzy.”
I disagree.
But it certainly got Yahoo what they wanted, a ton of hits. This story was mentioned all over the internet.
And Silver somehow got two NFL coaches to speak to him anonymously for this story.
“He seems like a great guy to have on a team, and I’d be tempted to bring him in as our backup,” one NFC head coach told me Wednesday. “But it’s just not worth dealing with all the stuff that comes with it.
“You don’t want to put up with the circus,” said one AFC head coach.
Yeah right, he got two NFL coaches anonymously. Do you know how hard it would be to get one unnamed head coach, let alone two? Whatever.
But let me get back to my original point – why this angle is bull.
Tebow isn’t being blackballed because of his cult following, he’s being blackballed because of his shortcomings as a quarterback.
NFL.com’s Gil Brandt nailed it a couple of years ago, when he called Tebow a “slow processor.”
Tebow works his tail off – there is no question about it. He’s doing everything he can to get better as a quarterback.
The problem is he doesn’t read defense fast enough, and takes too long to get rid of the ball.
As I’ve relayed many times, former Jets offensive coordinator Tony Sparano yelled at him repeatedly last summer in training camp to “get rid of the ball.” This happened a lot.
Silver brought up the Vinny Testeverde’s recent quotes to Rich Cimini. Testaverde and Chris Weinke have been working with Tebow this off-saeson.
“Chris and I looked at Tim careful and we were both amazed,” Testaverde told Cimini. “Everybody has been focusing on his throwing motion, trying to fix that, but nobody had picked up his footwork. His footwork was all screwed uu.
“We got his footwork fixed. His throwing motion is now a non-issue. He throws with what we call ‘effortless power.’ He doesn’t have that elongated motion anymore and his head isn’t moving two-and-a-half feet when he throws it.”
Once again, while footwork is important, what does that have to do with processing defenses faster? Not much.
People are barking up the wrong tree with this Tebow stuff. Of course the three-ring circus that comes with him isn’t ideal. Yes, his throwing motion and footwork needed to improve from his days at Florida (and they have).
However, it’s his slow processing of defensive configurations and holding on to the ball too long which are the big problems.
Believe me, he’s not being blackballed, not in a quarterback-driven league
May 9, 2013
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