With Tim Tebow back with the Patriots, the media will have two reasons to stake out the locker room.
Bill Belichick is at it again. One can almost catch the impish gleam in his eye.
Oddly, for someone who shuns the press as much as he does (see my piece earlier this year when, after his Patriots lost to the Ravens in the AFC Championship, he refused to come out of the locker room for a postgame interview with CBS’s Steve Trasker), Belichick seems to make at least one move every offseason calculated, at least in part, to get media tongues wagging. Some worked out; see: Randy Moss. Some did not; see: Albert Haynesworth and Chad formerly-Ochocinco-now-back-to-being Johnson, who is on his way to jail after slapping his lawyer’s ass in the courtroom. (That’s a whole other story.)
None of Belichick’s signings, however, have been of quite the column-inch producing and pageview-generating magnitude of the latest Patriot acquisition. After a long, dark, homeless winter, Tim Tebow is back in the NFL.
Yes, the proud virgin with the terrible throwing mechanics, whose religion and beefy good looks (and, let’s face it, the fact that he’s white) have generated media interest out of all proportion to his onfield ability, is a New England Patriot. It’s an intriguing matchup.
On the Patriots’ side, they lose nothing by signing Tebow. If it doesn’t work out, the team can simply cut him without penalty. And, on the flipside, it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that it could work out.
If nothing else, Tebow is tough, both mentally and physically. I would guess that it is this quality, as much as anything, that attracted the notoriously dark and glowering coach to the former Heisman trophy winner. What’s more, he’s smart, football smart. He can read a playbook and execute.
Tebow will open camp working primarily with the tight ends, though the Patriots haven’t ruled out using him behind center. This makes sense. Tebow’s size and athleticism are potentially a good fit at that position. What’s more, after offseason surgery, all-world tight end Rob Gronkowski’s long-term future is uncertain.
And to those who worry that the media hordes that Tebow drags with him in his wake will be a distraction in the Patriots’ locker room, I offer this hypothesis. It’s just possible that, for once, Belichick is courting it.
Though never a team for locker room distractions, the Patriots face a number of questions heading into the 2013 season. Though they’ve consistently been the most successful NFL franchise since the turn of the century, it’s been 8 years since they won a Super Bowl. Tom Brady’s window is closing, Rob Gronkowski’s health is in question, and it remains to be seen whether Danny Amendola can make up for the loss of Wes Welker. My guess is Belichick will be perfectly content to let the media perseverate over Tebow.
After all, if one has to be part of the circus, better to be the ring master than the freak. Perhaps the most important lesson Belichick can impart to his latest protege.
Photo: Wade Payne/AP
What I want to know from all you Patriot fans who Ragged on Tebow when he was with the Broncos (In articles right on this sight) now that he’s wearing your ‘colors’, will your attitude change toward him? Personally, I was a Jets fan until I saw the way they treated him. Now I hope the Patriots kick the Jets ass when they play them this season!