Professional athlete and television commentator Tim Tebow was released by the Jacksonville Jaguars Tuesday, likely ending an experiment that saw him try to make the team at a new position, tight end.
Tebow, on social media, remained optimistic.
“Thank you to the @Jaguars organization and everyone who has supported me in this journey,” he tweeted Tuesday. “And we know that …God works all things together for good. Romans 8:28.”
Thank you to the @Jaguars organization and everyone who has supported me in this journey.
— Tim Tebow (@TimTebow) August 17, 2021
And we know that…God works all things together for good. Romans 8:28
Tebow won the Heisman Trophy in 2007 while playing quarterback for the University of Florida, and then played quarterback in the NFL for the Denver Broncos and the New York Jets.
Tebow, 33, did not play tight end in college or the pros but was given a shot at the position when his former Florida coach, Urban Meyer, was hired in early 2021 by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Jaguars signed Tebow in May to a one-year contract. He played in the Jaguars’ first exhibition game and didn’t catch a pass, although he was thrown to twice. (One pass was caught by a teammate who stepped in front of the pass, and the other pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage, according to ESPN.)
“Thankful for the highs and even the lows, the opportunities, and the setbacks,” he tweeted Tuesday. “I’ve never wanted to make decisions out of fear of failure and I’m grateful for the chance to have pursued a dream …”
It wasn't the first time Tebow had experimented with a new sports path. In 2016 he signed a professional baseball contract with the New York Mets, even though he had not played baseball since his junior year of high school. The Mets assigned him to several minor league teams, where he held his own. He batted a combined .226 with eight home runs, 24 doubles and 52 RBIs for two teams in 2017, and then batted a .273 average with six home runs and 36 RBIs in 2018 for Binghamton. He was an Eastern League All-Star in 2018.
Tebow retired from baseball in February. MILB.com reported that “injuries, age and a lost year due to the COVID-19 pandemic prevented him from accomplishing more on the field.”
Despite never playing a regular season game, Tebow’s Jaguars jersey was the second-best-selling Jaguars jersey in the NFL.com shop, trailing only the jersey of quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
In 2014, Tebow became a host of the SEC Network’s SEC Nation, a pregame show for college football.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Sam Greenwood/Staff
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
