The New York Jets would rather lose a season than start Tebow

Ever since his ill-fated decision to stand against the Liberal Status Quo, Tebow has been a mystery   A Heisman winning quarterback whose style was questioned for its compatibility for pro football, Tebow became the proverbial hot-potato when he starred in a Super Bowl commercial renouncing abortion.  The NFL, happy to allow more progressive politicizing on behalf of its industry, is less tolerant when it comes to standing against the liberal grain.  After all, like most big business, it thrives in a culture of ME, and that's what liberalism,  whether intentionally or not, promotes.

So Tebow was begrudgingly brought in by the Denver Broncos last season, confined to the third string, and largely dismissed by critics who determined that he wasn't just not fit for pro football, but he was one of the worst to ever play the game.  Then, of course, history was changed as, due to floundering early in the season, Tebow was - with great trepidation - put in the game.  And then he won.  And won. And won again.  Critics insisted that they were sloppy wins.  Bad wins. Lousy wins.  But they were wins.  Then they went against Big Ben and the Steelers in the first week of playoffs, and the game has become the stuff of legend.

Sure, the following week, when Tom Brady and the Patriots dined on Bronco for lunch, everyone saw the limits of Tebow and a team that had never been adjusted to him.  But still, for his first time out, it was a season of magic and awe.  So naturally, the Broncos brought in Peyton Manning, prompting Tebow to go to the Jets.  The animosity toward Tebow is as much the stuff of legend as any last minute win.  Not since Muhammad Ali angered American with his flagrant condemnations of America and the war in Vietnam has an athlete galvanized so many in their hatred of an individual.  Which probably goes to show how the status quo meter has changed.  Same intolerance.  Different reasons.

But the hatred toward Tebow apparently extended to the field this year, his coach, and the team itself.  So much so that, despite one clown performance after another, despite loss after loss, despite Sanchez approaching every bad stat that a quarterback can have, there was no way in God's green earth they were going to give Tebow a chance.  When an attitude or value system becomes entrenched,  self destruction is vastly preferred to giving in, and that's just what the Jets chose to do.  In the last three possessions of last night's fair-well performance, when they needed but four points to tie the game and go into overtime, they suffered two interceptions, and a fumble.

Naturally the sports press, who is not less hateful toward Tebow, have found ways of saying he was the mischief.  His very presence I guess.  But one thing is clear: the franchise was prepared to suffer an embarrassingly bad losing season, rather than take a chance on another year where Tebow-mania vindicated a much maligned athlete   We'll see what happens next year.