Who knew Tim Tebow making a comeback to the NFL at age 33 would envoke such a harsh response from a ton of people.
Per reports, the Jacksonville Jaguars plan on signing him as a tight end.
One of his former teammates with the New England Patriots, Rob Ninkovich, appeared on Wednesday’s edition of ESPN’s Get Up! and was asked by host Mike Greenberg whether he thought Tebow had a chance to really stick at tight end with the Jags.
“Honestly, I look at this: if you threw a helmet and shoulder pads on me, and I haven’t played in four years, I would be able to throw around Tim Tebow as a tight end,” Ninkovich said, after being asked if he thought Tim Tebow could make the 53-man roster. “Listen, listen, you can’t just go from quarterback to a tight end. You can’t do it.
Ninkovich continued:
“There’s guys on rosters, and this is one of the issues that I have with the whole thing. There’s some kid that’s coming out of college that wants an opportunity and wants just to have that roster spot to go out and have the opportunity to possibly make a team. Tim Tebow has had that opportunity in the NFL. He’s had his opportunity in the NFL. He was a quarterback — it didn’t last very long. Then he wanted to go play baseball — OK. Go play baseball. It didn’t work out in baseball.
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“So now his relationship with Urban Meyer gives him another chance to go play football. But it’s not like that in football, and this is one reason I love football and I fell in love with the game, you can’t hide. You can’t hide in football. You can’t go out in left field and just go somewhere. When you’re on that field and you put pads on, you’re exposed. That’s why I love the game. When you put pads on and someone’s talking, you say ‘Alright, let’s put pads on. Let’s see who’s the tougher guy.’ You can see the people who can play. You can see it with your eyes. The film doesn’t lie. The eye in the sky — you should say ‘the eye in the sky don’t lie.’ Because once that film is on, you’re going to be exposed.”
“For me, I just don’t think mentally as a quarterback going to a physical position where you have to block and go against big men that he’ll be able to do that,” he said.
Count Ninkovich among the many current or former athletes who don’t see this Tim Tebow news as good news.
