At only 30-years-old, Tim Tebow’s professional career has already been a wild ride. The former Broncos and New York Jets quarterback is currently playing for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies — I minor league baseball team.
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Now, the 30-year-old, Heisman winning, minor league baseball player might be getting offers to return to football. It would seem, he already has an offer on the table.
Steve Spurrier, the head coach of the Orlando franchise in the Alliance of American Football, sounds interested in adding Tebow to his new roster. The team does not have any platers yet, as it has just begun, but they are starting to look at potential players.
When asked about it on the Open Mike radio show last week, Spurrier voiced his enthusiasm about having Tebow back out on the football field.
“That would be wonderful. I think Tim knows about our league. He knows he’s welcome to come down [to Orlando] and play. Obviously, if his baseball career is going well, he may decide to stick with it, which I would certainly understand. But if it doesn’t go too well and he has the urge to play football, we would certainly welcome him in Orlando,” Spurrier told the Open Mike hosts.
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Spurrier’s team will be located in Orlando, 115 miles from Tebow’s college in Gainesville. Spurrier said that being close to the University of Florida was one of the reasons he took the job as head coach.
“When they (league officials) told me there was going to be a team in Orlando, I said, ‘I’m very interested!’ ” Spurrier said. “I don’t think I would move out of Florida, but to coach a team in Orlando among all the Gators and Seminoles and especially that UCF bunch, that will be thrilling.”
The AAF team’s home field will be located at the University of Central Florida’s Spectrum Stadium. The stadium is 13 miles outside of Orlando and will be a draw to fans who might be visiting Orlando for other reasons.
The AAF is a new football league launching in February 2019. The league is set up similar to the NFL, but smaller with only eight teams coming from eight different cities. Each team will be allocated 50 players and will run off of a regionally-based draft. The draft will take place this fall.
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Although similar to the NFL, the AAF will have a few different rules that will widely change the game for both players and fans. One factor that might win over some fans is that there will be no TV timeouts in the AAF, and they will have 60 percent fewer commercials than their competitor, the NFL.
The AAF will not have kickoffs or onside kicks. If a team is losing, they will receive the ball on their 35-yard and will face a fourth and 10, which will be interesting to see play out. Also different from the NFL, two-point conversions will be mandatory post touchdown.
Tebow, who currently plays in New York, might find the proposition of going back to Florida alluring. Tebow played college football in Florida where he won’t two national championships as well as the Heisman Trophy. Coach Spurrier also won the Heisman at Florida when he played there in the 1960’s, giving the two a topic to bond over.
When interviewed by CNBC, back in February, Tebow said the only way that he would return to football is if a team drafted him as the quarterback. He has received offers from many NFL teams, but none to play quarterback.
“I still have offers to go play other positions,” Tebow said. “For me, it was doing more of my dream, ’cause I loved playing quarterback. But I love hitting a baseball, too. So I’m gonna go live out my dreams, not just what other people want me to do.”
The ex-footballer has had a semi-successful time with baseball so far but has struggled to play on the Mets’ Double-A affiliate team. Tebow currently holds a .143 average, with one home run (which was his first at-bat) and then three strikeouts.
Tebow has yet to comment on the chance to join the AAF league, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if he joined because you truly can never know which direction he is headed in.