Things a Jersey guy took note of this week: The Tim Tebow story moved to New England when the Patriots announced they had signed Tebow to a 2-year contract.
With that announcement, the feeding frenzy which accompanies any Tebow-related news began. Reporters from New York, where Tebow “played” last season with the Jets arrived in Foxborough. Camera crews from all over New England arrived at Gillette Stadium.
Not surprisingly, Patriot coach Bill Belichick had to handle a never-ending series of questions about his new THIRD STRING QB.
But unlike Denver and New York, where Tebow made his previous National Football League stops, the oxygen supply for this story quickly ended. Tebow made a statement which lasted less than a minute on Tuesday, the first day of the Patriots mini-camp.
By Thursday, the story was on simmer at best.
Why?
Belichick and the Patriots wouldn’t feed it with any information.
Tebow and the Patriots are right for each other because Belichick, who is a buddy of Tebow’s college coach Urban Meyer, will not address the issue. What Tebow will do in New England this season is essentially red shirt-watching and learning with the Patriots and QB Tom Brady to be a better or even an NFL caliber QB.
By January, the Patriots and Tebow will have a better idea of what they have and what they want.
What has been lost in the past few years of the Tebow mania hysteria is just how good a college QB Tebow (Heisman winner) was. Among the best to ever play the game.
What is also being dismissed to some extent is the competitive nature and fire within Tebow, which is probably what attracted Belichick to Tebow in the first place.
How good you were in college means nothing in the NFL. But how good a competitor you are means quite a bit.
Tebow may indeed make in in the NFL and if he does he will thank Belichick and the Patriots–even if he winds up playing somewhere else.
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I hope Phil Michelson wins the US Open on Sunday afternoon. Good story. Mickelson’s birthday, Father’s Day for a Father who flew across the country and back for his daughter’s eighth grade graduation, a win for one of the good guys on tour who had more US Open second place finishes than any golfer in history. All good story lines.
What was almost comical this week was the references of Mickelson, who flew from Philadelphia to his home in Southern California and then back to Philadelphia on a “red eye” flight where he had a 7 a.m tee time on Thursday.
“Red eye”"? Really. Mickelson left Southern California on Wednesday night at 8 p.m Pacific Coast Time and arrived in Philadelphia at 3:30 a.m.
Which is tough. But Phil wasn’t in seat 28 B. He trips were made on his private plane a Gulfstream V, which sells for in the $40 million range, seats 16 to 18 and sleeps 6. Phil took off at 8 p.m and it is safe to say he probably arrived at the airport at 7:55 p.m.
He then sat in a soft leather chair, did some paper work, had some dinner and then settled in for a nice comfort nap in a BED.
If he had spent Wednesday night at a hotel five minutes from the course, he probably would have had dinner, done some paper work and crawl into bed at somewhere between 10 and 11 p.m. But since his body clock was still on Pacific coast time, he might not have actually fallen a sleep until 1 am. EDT and gotten a fitful four or five hours sleep before an early wake up call.
What he did on the plane was essentially the same thing. Phil said it wasn’t a big deal and it wasn’t and he went out and proved it by shooing a round o f 3 under par 67 and leading the tournament which he led the next two days, going into Sunday’s final round.
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Quick question about the golf experts out there, all who predicted that Merion because of the wet weather and soft greens would be overwhelmed by the players who are really good. What happened? How did you ALL miss the fact that Merion has teeth no matter what the conditions?…Miami’s NCAA investigation is now over and a decision on additional penalties the Hurricanes might receive should be made and announced by the end of the summer. Thank heavens. This case has been mishandled by the NCAA as well as Miami, which has already self imposed two years of sanctions. Let’s move on….The Stanley Cup Final series between the Bruins and Blackhawks is developing into what could be one of the best Stanley Cup finals of all time. Overtime hockey, even 3 OT hockey is as good as it gets during the playoffs….How good are the Miami Heat? Well good enough to where it doesn’t look like they will lose two games in a succession, which means they will be the repeat NBA champions…Indiana in the College baseball World Series? Really. No Big Ten team has made it that far since Michigan did it in…1984…Hopefully the new Big East will have a commissioner by the end of the month. But they chose a Pope faster than these guys who pose as Presidents who act like they know something about the way college athletics should be and is run. And they don’t…..Doesn’t look like Celtics coach Doc Rivers will be going to the Clippers to coach next season. Celtics asking price of compensation for Rivers was too high. But will Doc be coaching the Celtics next season?…Beanball war between Diamondbacks and Dodgers was down right ugly. Suspensions on both sides were more than warrented.
