Tim Tebow finally spoke up and defended himself against accusations he asked out of the team's wildcat package for Sunday's loss to the Chargers, although his explanation is open to interpretation.
"You work your whole life to build a reputation," Tebow said Wednesday. "Then people try to bring you down when they don’t understand even what happened. It’s disappointing. You just want to express your side of the story."
Tebow admitted telling Rex Ryan that he was frustrated at not being named starter and with "running up the middle" consistently on the wildcat, and he acknowledged the "possibility" that Ryan misinterpreted him to mean he wanted out. But he insisted that he didn't want to come off as being selfish.
"I never said, 'Hey, I don’t want to do anything. I won’t do anything,' " Tebow said. "That wasn’t the talk at all. He knows that. And everybody on this team knows that I would never not do something if I was asked. That’s what’s disappointing. … People saying, 'Oh, you quit.' That was not it at all. It was just me asking to get an opportunity to play the position I love, which is quarterback. It wasn’t me asking out of anything."
Added Tebow: "When people talk about how you play football and how much, that’s one thing. That really doesn’t bother me. I think the only thing that’s been disappointing these last few days and frustrating is people saying, 'Oh you quit on your team or you’re not a good teammate.' "
Read more about that story and others, plus check out videos, trivia and more, at Thursday's Morning Mashup [1].
Links:
[1] http://leeinks.weei.com/sports/2012/12/27/thursdays-morning-mashup-tim-tebow-denies-asking-out-of-jets-wildcat-package
[2] http://www.weei.com/category/boston/general