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Daniel Kelly is a former NFL Scout – NY Jets to be exact. His book “Whatever It Takes” is out now, and you can check it out HERE.
If I was named as a GM in the NFL, the first thing I would say from the podium is, “I want to begin by giving my Lord and my Savior, Jesus Christ, all the Glory for this amazing and incredible opportunity, because without Him, none of this would be happening. It’s also at this time I’d like to introduce to all of you, the team’s new and undisputed franchise starting quarterback, Tim Tebow.”
Tony Razzano saw greatness in a quarterback from Notre Dame that many thought lacked arm strength named Joe Montana. Ron Wolf saw something in Brett Favre back when things weren’t working out for Favre in Atlanta. John Schneider saw what the rest of the NFL missed in Russell Wilson. I see it in Tebow.
My favorite saying in life is a quote by Jonathan Swift, “Vision is the art of seeing what’s invisible to others.”
Back in 2010, I was invited to the NFL Scouting Combine to sit on the scouting panel for Sports Management World Wide. After we were all done sharing our stories about how we got into the NFL, someone in the audience of about three hundred people stood up and asked, “Tim Tebow is the most controversial player in this year’s draft, I have to ask the scouting experts what are your thoughts?” The moderator turned and looked directly at me and asked me to begin.
I leaned into my microphone and said, “Tim Tebow will be a superstar in the National Football League. A lot scouts will miss on him, because he’s not textbook, but he was 37-3 at Florida and his intangibles are off the charts.”
The other four guys sitting along side me on the panel killed him. Across the boards, one by one they took their shots. One guy said, “Maybe he’s got a chance as a tight end or an H-Back.”
No, Tim Tebow is still a future Hall of Fame caliber quarterback. Tim Tebow is still a quarterback capable of winning multiple Super Bowls. I stake my scouting reputation on those statements.
Tebow’s level of faith and boldness is absolutely incredible. I haven’t seen many players in the league with his level of passion and excitement either. He has the ability to inspire and draw greatness out of others that they do not even know exists within themselves. I am absolutely convinced, Tebow could go back in the huddle and say, “Ok, huddle up, huddle up, we’re all going to walk on water together, on three, on three, ready, ready break” and the other ten guys would immediately look for the nearest kiddie pool on the sidelines and they’d get their cleats wet. That’s what Tim Tebow has been blessed with. Don’t worry about his footwork, his throwing motion or his arm strength. Save all that jargon for the other quarterback’s scouting reports.
It was a miracle Tim Tebow was ever born in the first place. From the way the story goes, Tim’s mom, Pam, was advised to get an abortion during the pregnancy because of health concerns. Pam and Tim’s dad, Bob, would not hear of it. They prayed and they trusted God with their gift. Bob told God something to the effect that if He gave them a son, they’d would name him Timothy and raise him to be a preacher.
That’s what the critics don’t get about Timmy T; his Creator heard their prayer.
It’s for this precise reason and this reason alone the league has sent this young playoff winning quarterback into exile. I’ve never seen anything remotely like it in my thirty plus years of watching the game. Every team in the league clamors for a young franchise quarterback and several teams in the league right now don’t have anything like Tebow under center. The Browns, Jaguars, Vikings and Rams immediately come to mind.
In 2011, the Broncos brought in veteran Kyle Orton. With Orton at helm, the Broncos hit the proverbial iceberg early on and found themselves sinking at 1-4. Enter Tim Tebow, stage left. All season long everyone knew Tebow was going to take off and run and while he wasn’t exactly Barry Sanders, still, few could stop him. Against all the odds #15 led Denver to the playoffs and even won a playoff game, not just against anybody, but he did it against the Grandfather of NFL defense, Dick LeBeau and the vaunted Pittsburgh Steelers who have started collecting rings on their other hand. I’ll never forget that game.
It’s known on Wikipedia as the “3:16 Game.” According to the Wikipedia report, Tebow threw for 316 yards. Tebow averaged 31.6 yards per completed pass. The ratings for the game peaked in overtime as 31.6% of households in America were glued to the screen. The game took place on January 12, 2012 – exactly 3 years to the date Tebow famously wore the John 3:16 eye black during his BCS Championship win. By the afternoon of January 9, 2012, Twitter reported that the event spawned 9,420 Tweets per second, setting a new world record for a sporting event. It was also the second most-Tweets per second event of all time. John 3:16 became the most searched term on Google that evening and the following day.
John Elway quickly realized that he was losing his city to this young polarizing quarterback and sent him packing in favor of an old veteran coming off four neck surgeries named Peyton Manning. Kudos to John, for he also knew what he was seeing in Manning, but the thought did cross my mind during the Super Bowl if Elway wished Tebow was still there to come off the bench.
After Denver parted ways with Tebow, this is where this story gets even weirder. The same New York Jets that Tebow defeated only months prior end up trading for him, but then they never really gave him a fighting chance.
Instead, the Jets penciled in Tebow at left bench and before you knew it and without any merit whatsoever, Tebow was once again known as someone who couldn’t play quarterback. Can anyone in the National Football League give me a witness?
Can someone schedule a press conference to let all the “Who’s in Whoville” know what really happened in New England? All Tebow did there was lead yet another come from behind victory in the Patriots pre-season finale. That must be it. That’s what did it. Cut him! Cut him!
It gets more interesting, no other team dared to reach out to him down the stretch. Several teams signed lesser-proven quarterbacks and one team in Texas even signed a retired quarterback who is now a high school teacher to be their back up in the most important game of their season.
As some of you may recall in an article for Touchdown Europe prior to last season, I stated about Belichick and Tebow, “Bill will do an amazing job with Tebow. Tebow makes minimum mistakes and keeps the ball moving downfield. That’s what Bill loves!” I will admit, I was really surprised when Tebow didn’t stick in New England. Robert Kraft even seemed to love him from everything that was reported.
I thought, well it didn’t work out in New England, but there was still a chance Tebow would end up in Chicago with one of his quarterback mentors and biggest supporters prior to the draft, Marc Trestman, but that didn’t happen either. That one really surprised me.
This goes way deeper than what meets the eye.
Tebow was signed by New York and New England for one reason and one reason alone, in an attempt to crush him. Sounds almost like an order from the top of the food chain has been issued.
The reason Tim Tebow scares the hell out of the National Football League (no pun intended) is because Tim Tebow does things that completely defy logic while giving all the glory to Jesus Christ. Things happened in and through Tim Tebow that they couldn’t explain and they couldn’t stop on the field either. Tebow is the greatest threat to the establishment that has ever laced ‘em up. The way I see it, Tim Tebow has a level of anointing on his life the world has not seen since King David in the Old Testament. All the league’s collective brainpower seems to be able to do little to stop him when it’s Tebow Time. Their best and only real shot to stop this thing from spreading any further is to keep him out of the league. Reminds me of story along the same lines about Tebow’s Lord and Savior.
The league can have their motives, but the truth is, God has allowed this to happen according to His will, plan and purpose. As powerful and in control as the top executives in the league think they are in their own heads, the reality is, they are only pawns in this end game. In my opinion, God has allowed this for two reasons; too let it become more impossible looking to people and to draw Tim Tebow even closer to Himself in relationship in preparation for what’s to come.
Critics can say whatever they want. God Bless the critics, for they know not what they say and write.
The next time the clock strikes Tebow Time, good luck to the greatest minds in the game. They’ll learn what Goliath learned.
While the rest of the football world is focused on all the free agents and all the prospects in the draft, I thought I’d send in my scouting report.
March 8th, 2014 
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