Tim Tebow had a brief run with the New England Patriots, but it didn’t come without one request from Bill Belichick.
Don’t be a distraction.
Tebow joined the Patriots in 2013, proving to be no more than a training camp body. At that point, Tebow’s NFL career was on the downturn, but he remained as famous, if polarizing, as ever.
And Tebow revealed during an appearance Tuesday on CBS Sports Radio’s "Maggie and Perloff" that Belichick did specifically say to him not to keep a low profile.
“It was something that my agent would always say," Tebow said. "He’d talk to other teams and talk to their GMs, talk to their owners and they’d say we love it, but we can’t have a backup quarterback with that much attention. I mean, it’s something that honestly me and Belichick talked about a lot when I was there. When we signed, he said ‘So excited, but we need you to stay under the radar.’
“I literally spent one whole year, you can go look it up, almost one whole year training out on the West Coast where I stayed away from literally everything. It was right after I got cut from the Patriots and I tried to stay under the radar to avoid that, so it wouldn’t be as big of a deal.”
To Tebow’s credit, he did make a concerted effort to not be a distraction in New England. Still, there was huge media interest in him, leading to Belichick unsurprisingly being ornery about all the attention Tebow was getting.
The quarterback ultimately was released on cutdown day, and eventually made his way into broadcasting – with stops on the Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars over the years.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram