Osborne: Tebow Forces NFL Back to the Drawing Board
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By Randy York
Matt Slauson, the New York Jets’ starting offensive left guard, was having lunch with former Husker teammate Ricky Henry
at a popular downtown Lincoln restaurant Wednesday when his cell phone
rang. “Hey, you have a new teammate!” wife Cami told Slauson, who said:
“What are you talking about?” So Cami clued him in. “The Jets just
traded for (Tim) Tebow,” she said. “He’s your new teammate!”
Slauson,
the Jets’ country-loving, hard-working, tough-minded fourth-year pro
who has made 32 consecutive NFL starts, admitted he didn’t know what to
think at first. “So I just said: ‘That’s a little bizarre because Mark (Sanchez) is our guy (at quarterback).’”
In the next couple minutes, however,
everything became crystal clear to Slauson, the analytical son of a
Lincoln high school principal. “The more I thought about it, the more it
made sense to me,” he said. “I thought about what type of player Tebow
is and how (Tony) Sparano’s our offensive coordinator.
He was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, where the Wildcat offense
was made. Tim Tebow is perfect for the Wildcat, so I think it’s going to
be a real asset for us.”
Saying he envisions Tebow becoming the Jets’
third-team quarterback, Slauson offered up a personal prediction
Thursday after finishing a Lincoln workout in his rehabilitation from
torn labrum/rotator cuff/ bicep surgery last January in New York. “Tim
Tebow’s going to be a star because of the fan base he has and the
following he brings,” Slauson said. “He’s the type of guy you either
love or you hate, and you know what? That’s the New York mentality right
there.”
After playing in a state that showed
overwhelming support for Nebraska football, Slauson now plays in a large
metropolitan area where “there are a lot of people who hate us and a
lot of people who love us,” he said. “I’ve been called a redneck, and
I’ve been called a hillbilly, and I take that as a personal compliment,
even though I am not a redneck or a hillbilly.”
Slauson uses his own situation as a
microscopic example of how quickly Tebow will be branded. “If he gets
called an ultra-conservative Christian, I would take that as an extreme
compliment if I were him,” Slauson said. “He’s striving to be a
high-character and extremely motivated Christian guy, and I think
whether you love it or hate it, you have to respect him for what he
does.”
That applies on and off the field, according
to Slauson, who watched Tebow lead Denver on a 95-yard drive and
game-winning 20-yard touchdown in the final minute of the Broncos’
stunning 17-13 win over the Jets late last season.
Slauson is almost ecstatic to see the Wildcat
become part of the Jets’ offense again. “My first two years in New
York, we used the Wildcat all the time,” he said. “We had (former
Missouri quarterback) Brad Smith, but lost him as a
free agent to Buffalo, so we just ran the Wildcat a little bit last
year. Losing Brad really hurt our running game. Tebow’s perfect, and I
really do think he’s going to be a star here.”
If he is, don’t be surprised if I Love Tebow T-shirts (with a dominant big red heart) end up outselling the T-shirt every NY tourist has been buying for decades … the one with the simple but iconic I Love NY logo (the official New York State Tourism logo).
I think I still have one of those T-shirts somewhere, so maybe it’s
time to buy another. Talk about a potentially divisive city that
stretches all the way to Broadway (Joe). You can bet the minute I Love Tebow T-shirts are unloaded in boxes and go on sale near a downtown street corner, you can expect I Hate Tebow T-shirts to pop up in a New York minute … almost guaranteed.
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