Jacksonville Could Have Been The Epicenter of Tebowmania

EDITOR’S NOTE: Contributing columnist, Steve Nicklas, expresses his views and insights on various topics in Marketplace column.

___ STEVE’S MARKETPLACE ____

Tim Tebow is effusively thankful to his Lord. And the Jacksonville Jaguars should be eternally thankful they didn’t draft the spiritual quarterback last year. So should Jacksonville fans.

The moribund organization assured itself of a partly empty stadium for the foreseeable future. And like Tebow sidestepping a blitzing linebacker, the Jaguars avoided the hysterical media storm surrounding “Tebowmania.” Just think of how big their public-relations department would need to be to handle this type of “up-roar.”

There was the Tebow book-signing here, where fans showed up two days early. There was the first-annual golf tournament here to benefit Tebow’s own charitable foundation (in which several Jaguars played). And the Jaguars would have broken their agonizing streak of poor draft picks had they taken Tebow.

To sprinkle salt into fans’ wounds, the Jaguars callously drafted another quarterback with the same No. 10 pick they had the year before (and had refused to use on the Tebow). They have profusely defended their decision, saying they already had a quarterback in David Garrard — who they waived a year later.

Like the losses they consistently accrue, the Jaguars have carried on their campaign of bad decisions. They kept deadpan coach Jack Del Rio for three or four too many seasons. They’ve repeatedly invested in quarterbacks they mistook as franchise players.

The latest, Blaine Gabbert, looks scared and gun-shy when rushers confront him. While Tebow was one of the greatest college players of our time, Gabbert threw a paltry 16 touchdowns his senior year at Missouri.

To say Tebow is a winner is like saying longtime Jaguars’ owner Wayne Weaver is wealthy. Tebow won two national championships in college and fostered the success of former Gator coach Urban Meyer.

All Tebow has done in the NFL is take a below-average team in the Denver Broncos to a division title and a first-round playoff win over the defending conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers. When Tebow took over as starter, the Broncos were 1-4 and had just traded away their best receiver in Brandon Lloyd.

Many felt Broncos’ general manager John Elway was answering the fans’ screams for Tebow with the underlying and unspoken hope of seeing him fail. Tebow would have nothing of this.

His popularity has exponentially exploded. His practice of giving thanks by kneeling and praying on the field is widely identified as “tebowing” — and has been established as a verb by an on-line dictionary.

He engineered five remarkable come-from-behind victories and created a furor and mania that few can duplicate. He is the inspirational and heartwarming story of this season. Meanwhile, the most excitement in Jacksonville came from the curly-Q mustache of its new owner (who will probably move the team in three years due to a lack of success and fan support).

So what does Tebow humbly say at the press conference after a dazzling display of passing and running and decision-making in the victory over the vaunted Steelers?

“I’m just so blessed to be able to play quarterback for the Denver Broncos.” And to think he could have been talking about the Jacksonville Jaguars.