Warner's situation is completely different.Vcize wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 10:40 am Exceedingly rare for sure. Unprecedented? I don't know if I agree with that.
Kurt Warner fits a lot of the description you just laid out. He was a complete washout in the NFL, cut as a rookie, and couldn't even make a roster after that. Was literally pulled off the grocery bagger line after being out of the league and working in a supermarket for 5 years, then walked onto the field and was basically a league MVP.
Yes, it's an extreme outlier. Obviously Tebow doing anything of note would be too (and I find it extremely unlikely just as everyone does). But it's not unprecedented.
Warner went undrafted out of college in 1994, tried out, and didn't make the cut. He had never played in an NFL game. He tried for 3-4 years to get another try out and then caught on. There's nothing abnormal about undrafted players fighting for years to get into the NFL.
That's not the same thing as a player who proves he stinks, doesn't play in the league for 9 years, and then gets another job at a completely different position.
But he doesn't. Taysom Hill ran a 4.46 at his pro day. Tebow ran a 4.71 as a 23 year old in the draft combine and is likely even slower now. Putting Tebow in a Taysom Hill role would be laughably bad. He can't throw, he's slow, and has no twitch.Obviously 34 year old TE off the streets and 30 year old QB off the streets aren't the same thing, but I think people made a fair point about the NFL being a copycat league and Urban being a guy that doesn't exactly set up his teams to the status quo. It's completely possible that "TE" is merely a moniker for "Taysom Hill position", of which Tebow fits the mold at least somewhat.
Also I don't know how to look it up, but I bet there were some basketball players with little to no NFL experience that were given a tryout by teams at TE as well after they washed out of their basketball careers.
EDIT: Didn't even have to go to another team. Lance Kearse who played college bball and then played bball in Spain, before the Jags gave him a tryout 9 years after the last time he had put on a football helmet.
EDIT2: Erik Swoope was signed by the Colts as a TE despite never having played football at any level.
EDIT3: There are actually a ton of these guys. TE definitely seems to be a "no experience required" position when it comes to teams finding guys for the end of the roster.
All I'm saying is that if Urban Meyer was not the head coach of the Jaguars, Tebow would not have a job. It has nothing to do with Tebow's character, work ethic, or marketability. It's just a favor and sports-nepotism. That's why people are upset, because there are players who aren't in the NFL, who are better than Tebow, and don't get a chance.