Football rivalries don’t always end with the final whistle. For one former Jets QB, the battle bled into his NFL career twice. The first chapter was itself in college: a bitter SEC feud where he played the underdog to Tim Tebow’s golden boy. The second? A cruel twist of fate in New York, where front-office politics and ticket sales collided. This isn’t just about stats or wins. It’s about how Tebow – accidentally or not – became the roadblock in another man’s journey. Twice. First as the untouchable Heisman hero, then as the Jets’ marketing stunt. And the QB caught in the middle? Greg McElroy is finally telling his side of the story.
McElroy’s beef with Tim Tebow wasn’t just football—it was personal. “I wanted to beat Tim Tebow,” the former Jets QB confessed on The Jim Rome podcast, peeling back years of layered rivalry. “Tim knows this. It’s no secret.” The roots ran deep. Back in high school, Tebow was the 5-star phenom with Alabama and Florida begging for his signature. McElroy? The 3-star backup plan. “I was the guy Alabama recruited after Tebow said no,” he admitted. That sting fueled him, especially when Tebow became college football’s golden boy: Heisman winner, national champ, media darling.
Then came 2009. McElroy’s Alabama finally toppled Tim Tebow’s Gators in the SEC title game. “To play the way we did…was really special,” he recalled, still savoring the 32-13 win a decade later. But fate wasn’t done twisting the knife. The 2012 Jets became a case study in dysfunction, and McElroy was caught in the crossfire. After tearing his thumb in the preseason, he watched as Gang Green traded for Tebow that March, despite already having Mark Sanchez and veteran Mark Brunell on the roster. “I’m sitting there like alright, well, Brunell’s got one more year, I’ll be the two next year…And then, sure enough, we trade for Tebow for a fourth-round pick. It’s like ‘you gotta be kidding me,” added the 37-year-old.
The move reeked of desperation. Tebow, fresh off a playoff win with Denver, was acquired for two draft picks to run gimmick wildcat plays. But Woody Johnson later admitted the trade was about “selling tickets“, not football. McElroy saw his QB2 dreams evaporate overnight. The irony? When Sanchez imploded midseason, it was McElroy—not Tebow—who got the call in Week 13 against Arizona. He led a game-winning drive…only to get concussed the next week.
Tebow’s Jets tenure flopped spectacularly. 8 pass attempts all season and broke ribs, but hid the injury until Thanksgiving. The Jets then cut him after one year. Meanwhile, McElroy’s lone start proved he belonged—until the Jets drafted Geno Smith in 2013. The lesson? In New York, marketing sometimes trumps merit.
But the football gods still had one last cruel joke to play. In 2014, at ESPN, McElroy landed his big break, replacing Tebow on SEC Nation after years of grinding. “It’s a big promotion,” he’d thought, already picturing road trips and stadium crowds. Then fate intervened again: Tebow got cut by the Patriots and strolled back into the studio. “And then he comes back, and then you’re like ‘we’re gonna punt you, Greg, back to the studio.” The irony was almost poetic—once again, Tebow’s shadow eclipsed McElroy’s moment. Yet this time, something unexpected happened. The resentment faded. “He’s become a great friend,” McElroy admitted.
But what about Woody’s Tim Tebow experiment?
Woody Johnson’s Tim Tebow debacle
The truth about Tim Tebow’s Jets stint was written in the empty promises and broken ribs. Woody Johnson’s March 2012 declaration. “I think you can never have too much Tebow”—rang hollow by December, when the quarterback sat ignored on the bench with two fractures in his ribs, suited up but unused like some bizarre $2.5 million mascot.
New York never wanted a football player. They arguably wanted a circus act. Tebow got paraded at that lonely introductory press conference, abandoned to media wolves while the Jets brass hid behind palm trees at league meetings. He took special teams snaps when healthy, played through pain when injured, and watched as Rex Ryan’s “gut feeling” handed Greg McElroy the starting job over him when Mark Sanchez finally combusted.
The cruelty had a purpose. That Jockey billboard over the Lincoln Tunnel –“We Support Tebow & New York” became the season’s sickest punchline. Johnson got his ticket sales. Ryan got his scapegoat. And Tebow? He got 32 rushing attempts and eight total passes before being cut, his reputation as a gimmick cemented.
Through it all, Greg McElroy became an accidental pawn in the Jets’ con. His lone start, a Week 13 win over Arizona, wasn’t about merit. It was about the franchise refusing to admit their Tebow gamble failed. When the seventh-round rookie got concussed the next week, the cycle continued. The deception left scars. Johnson got rich. Ryan got fired. And two QBs—one a Heisman legend, one a gritty underdog—learned the same brutal lesson: in New York, you’re only as valuable as your last headline.
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