Denver Broncos should give Time Tebow another chance

KEVIN DEITRICK, Sports Columnist

We have all heard of Tim Tebow. You either love him or hate him. When one thinks of Tim Tebow, many different words are used to describe him. But most people know him as Tim Tebow the football player, or Tim Tebow the Christian.

If you know him as the Christian, you probably love him or get very annoyed by him. For me, I like the guy.

When it comes down to it, he’s just a good guy. He is authentic, diligent, selfless and he just seems like a nice guy. I mean, who wouldn’t want a guy like that on your football team? He had to be one of the best people to work with on a group project in school. Consistently doing his part of the work, it would have to be an easy A.

If you are reading this, you probably have heard of him as Tim Tebow the quarterback, the football player. This is what I want to talk about. Before the Denver Broncos had Peyton Manning, who led them to two Super Bowls, they had Tim Tebow as their quarterback.

He had a legendary college career for the Florida Gators. He was a three-time Heisman finalist (he won it as a sophomore), he was a Consensus All-American, won the Davey O’Brien Award, two Maxwell Award trophies and was also named SEC Offensive Player of the Year as a junior.

After a phenomenal college career, many thought he didn’t have what it took to be an NFL quarterback. But the Broncos took a chance and drafted him with their first round pick. Many were surprised. My family, as lifelong Broncos fans, were ecstatic.

After spending his rookie year as a backup, 2011 is when Tebow made his chance. After Kyle Orton led them to a 1-4 start, Tebow took over. After losing his first start to the San Diego Chargers, Tebow led the Broncos to victory on seven of their next eight games. These games were filled with strong defense and exciting comebacks that led to the creation of “Tebow Time”.

Tebow led Denver to the playoffs and downed the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime. The magical season came to an end after getting dominated by the New England Patriots, 45-10. Tebow finished the year with 1,729 passing yards, 12 passing touchdowns, 660 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns.

After 2011, Broncos general manager John Elway said that Tebow was their guy for the foreseeable future. That is, until Peyton Manning became available.

Since 2012, Tim Tebow has been on the New York Jets, the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles. He was cut on all three teams. Lately he’s been an analyst on the SEC Network.

After winning the Super Bowl, Manning decided to retire a champion. The Broncos now have a giant hole to fill under center. Their back up, Brock Osweiler, decided to sign with the Houston Texans. After a failed attempt to sign Colin Kaepernick, the Broncos don’t have many options.

Give Tebow another chance, what do they have to lose? The guy has won more games than he’s lost as a starting NFL quarterback. Other than his 47.9 percent completion percentage, his career stats aren’t too bad: 2,422 career passing yards, 17 passing touchdowns, 989 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns.

You honestly cannot go wrong with a guy like Tim Tebow on your team. Right now, the Broncos have no one. OK, you got me. They have Mark Sanchez. Even signing Tebow to be a backup would not be a horrible decision at all.