Reports are coming out that New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow has been offered a job by the Arena League’s Orlando Predators.
Politics and faith aside, Tebow has been a controversial figure in the NFL since his arrival to the league. While he managed to lead the Denver Broncos to the playoffs, his play has been a constant topic of debate in the sports world. Many have been very critical of his quarterback skills at the NFL level.
As Deadspin’s Greg Howard so elegantly puts it, “Tim Tebow is a bad quarterback. Tim Tebow is so bad that last year, he didn’t start a single game in place of another bad quarterback, Mark Sanchez, even though Sanchez was having an uncannily bad season. He is so bad that he is likely to be released from the New York Jets this offseason, and as of this writing, no one in the entire National Football League wants him on their roster, even though he has millions of fans across the country who consider him a good football quarterback, or at least a good Christian, and would invest hundreds or thousands of dollars to purchase his jersey and tickets to his games to show their support. This is not news.”
Even if no NFL team wants him, he may be able to find work at the Arena level. The Orlando Sentinel quotes Predators owner Brett Bouchy as saying:
“Tim would certainly want to first exhaust his opportunities in the NFL, but we’d love to have him. I think he would definitely improve as a quarterback in our league. Kurt Warner told me once that when he got back to the NFL after playing in the Arena League, the NFL game was like slow motion. Everything in the Arena League is just so much faster and quicker and predicated on accuracy. Whenever Tim is willing, we have a contract waiting for him to sign.”
If nothing else, Tebow’s celebrity status would help draw attention to the league itself, not to mention the Predators.
The New York Jets currently have five quarterbacks on their roster. According to ProFootballTalk, the team is still “looking at all possibilities” with Tebow.