Special Teams: Tim Tebow’s Playoff Win

special teams that played in them. It's nearly been a decade, so it's time to look back at Tim Tebow's loan playoff win, the shining achievement of his National Football League career January eighth, two thousand and twelve, Broncos beating the Steelers three in overtime on a very shocking play. Oh look, last week we talked about Steve Smith in his shocking touchdown at the end of double overtime. Well, this play we're gonna tell you about coming up made that play

look like a one yard touchdown plunge. At the end of Week eight, at the end of the first half of the game, because it was just that surprising Steelers and the Broncos. When Tim Tebow was on everybody's lips, I don't know that we talked about anything else in the entire world of sports in two thousand eleven. No, the curiosity of Tebow coming off the highly decorated collegiate

career and into the National Football League. And you know, anybody that talked to him or about him with gush right, all the broadcasters that had met him during his time at Florida would tell you what a great person he was in addition to just one of our best collegiate quarterbacks ever. And so you have this moment where everything converges, and we'll talk about some of the numbers, and even to this day just leave me astounded that this worked in any way, shape or form to become what it did.

But just an amazing year. And what's funny is it's just such an outlier because of where the organization went after this season concluded, the Broncos path to this game is as improbable as Tim Tebow's run. They wind up going eight and eight and they win the a f C West on tiebreakers with the Chargers and the Raiders. This was Von Miller's rookie season and coming in Kyle Lorton versus Tim Tebow, who would be the quarterback dominated the first five weeks of the season. Kyle Lorton, Buddy

Kyle Orton back when he was relevant. Kyle Orton, Buddy, look, I love the neck beard. He's been relevant uh during the pandemic time because a lot of guys are just doing interviews. Uh. Brian Urlacker now with hair. When asked who his favorite quarterback was that he played with, he mentioned the neck beard. Also just kind of funny, is that you know Jay Cutler uh, well started his career in Denver, became a bear. Uh, and then Kyle Orton uh becomes a bear. Uh. And then you've got you know,

John Fox would eventually um become a bear. So you know, you just got all this madness. He was a pipeline. So John Fox, who's the head coach of the Denver Broncos, has inherited Tim Tebow from Josh McDaniels, who drafted Tebow in the first round. It was a big deal when the Broncos traded him. Oh my goodness, look at Tebow coming off the star uh studied college career that he had that included Heisman trophies, National championships. What was the Broncos?

What were they going to do? Well? John Fox, who was hired to bring stability to this team, had a quarterback decision to make. The fans wanted to see Tim Tebow, right, he looked what he did in Florida. I get that no one thinks he can be a great quarterback and was he overdrafted? Sure he was, but the fans wanted to see him now. Kyle Orton wasn't awful, but Denver started one and four, so they had to make the

change to Tebow. What hurt Kyle Orton was the first six weeks of the season to Marius Thomas didn't play because he had a broken finger. So if Damarius Thomas plays, maybe things are a little bit different for the Broncos because he was that good. But instead they go to Tebow. Okay, let's see what Tim Tebow can do. So Tebow starts first game against the Miami Dolphins down fifteen nothing in the fourth quarter, Tebow throws for two touchdowns two point

conversion run to tie the game. They win in overtime. Eighteen fifteen, The Birth of Tim Tebow. Hey, look what he's able to do, all right? Then he throws a fifty six yard touchdown past late in the fourth quarter to be Kansas City seventeen ten. He has a big fourth quarter comeback against the Jets, a game in which the Broncos should have lost. The Jet should have won this game ten ways except Mark Sanchez throws a pick six,

but the Jets still have the lead. Late Tebow takes over at his own five yard line, but leaves the Broncos down. The Jets can't stop him. He runs for a twenty yard touchdown to win the game. This is a play I still see where nobody wanted to come out of the end zone and try to tackle Tebow. He's getting close to the goal line because he just had a head of team. He was a freight train. So here's another big comeback. When this is on a Thursday night, so it's on national television, and at this

point everything is Tim Tebow, Tebow, Tebow, Tebow Tebow. And if the win against my Jets wasn't so bad, the ten point fourth quarter comeback against your Bears is even worse. But of course, I know you blame Marian Barber for all of this. I blame Maryan Barber for everything, no question about it. Right, yeah, yeah, they finally score, right, Tebow's got him in the end of fine, but they've got two minutes left. This is easy, Barber with a run, Barber with a run, Barber with a run. They take

the pen on the delay of game. But the key was he had a five yard run that he's getting towards the sideline, and instead of turning it back in or sliding or just engaging someone and forcing him to tackle him in bounce, he goes out of balance of his own volition. So you stopped the clock. You stop the clock, and eventually you end up punting to give the ball back to Tebow and company. Yeah, you still gotta go make a step, but the game's over. They don't.

We use their third time out. That's it, it's done. Tebow Magic is dead. Tebow Magic is dead. This would have ended the winning streak, ended the legend of Tebow. But Mary and the Barbarians, the guy who I watched in the Big ten and with the Cowboys with the Bears run through walls, decides to go out of bounds. Jason Smith, I watched it in preparation. There was a shot of Tebow praying, just give me the strength to honor.

You give me that opportunity. So Barbara doesn't run out of bounds, and that turns into the game tying score, they win in overtime. And at this point in the NFL, he is the only NFL story. He's the only culture is Tim Tebow driven. There are songs written about Remember John parted, Tim Tebo was fire. I mean, it's all you can talk about. There's no other stories in the NFL. Tebow was on everybody's lips Saturday. This good? How is

the guy this good? Is he really this good? Many people didn't think he was very good at all, and just kept getting lucky every week, and certainly with teams like the Jets and the Bears helping, it helped the legend of Tim Tebow. But he was polarizing. He had huge fans, but it didn't matter. He was the entire news cycle of the National Football League. And here are the Broncos at eight and five and things are looking great. Eventually they waived Kyle Orton because they didn't need him anymore.

He was like, yeah, we don't need it, We don't need this guy. Okay, he's your backup. No, no, no, we don't need anymore. We're getting we need that's all. He could play all different positions for us. One big thing that that happened to the Broncos at this point during the season, was no Sean Marino, who was going to get the Lions share of that carries a running back towards a c l and missed the back half

of the season. So this is a huge weapon that the Broncos had to navigate the rest of the year without. But it didn't matter. They had Tebow. Tebow. Tibow Tebow Tebow. Broncos are right and five, everything is awesome. Well what happens They lose three straight to close the season, including seven three to the Chiefs in the final game of the year. And guess it was the quarterback of the Chiefs in that game, Kyle Orton's He was who the

Chiefs had picked up because they were having trouble. So here's Kyle Orton wins the big revenge game against Tim Tebow and at this point, going into the playoffs, it was Tebow magic has gone. He went six in that game. It was great for a few weeks, but now everybody's figured him out. He's a limited quarterback anyway coming in and that's what people forget is coming out of Florida,

he was a great college football quarterback. But how many times are you gonna run the football into the middle of the line and and gain a lot of yards and then come out and throw the football. Tebow had a lot of issues. He had a long wind up. He wasn't very accurate. That's why everybody was on one side of the fence or the other as far as how good he could become. Now, the thing for Tebow is that he's still young and this is his first real starting experience, so maybe he can grow. But it

didn't matter because he was so polarizing. There were many people that wanted to say, this is it on Tim Tebow. Many NFL players didn't like him, and that was the insane part of it is that you never heard and you never hear NFL players bagging another quarterbacks. You never hear, but you heard it. You heard it from other players. Heard it from Joe Flacco, you heard it from Steve Smith, you heard it from Terrell Suggs. Many played Tebow's overrated, overrated, overrated.

This is what you got because Tebow was just polarizing that way. And now at this point it's okay, it was great, but hey, they're gonna squeak into the playoffs and they're gonna play one game and that's gonna be it, and then the Broncos will be looking for a new quarterback. Yeah. You just remember how inefficient it all was, Jason. I mean, he had one game where he completed better than fifty two and a half percent of his passes, six games where he completed ten or fewer passes, only two games

where he threw for more than two hundred yards. He should I keep going. I mean, it's just like all of it just uh. They scored more than twenty points three times between week seven and seventeen. But when in the big plays, which is what he did. He made big plays and he came through in the clutch. He would have a crappy ass game, but then suddenly the fourth quarter he would have fifty yards rushing in a hundred and twenty yards passing. It was, what did he

just wear us down? And also sudden, why can he throw the football? And like he couldn't do the first three quarters of the game. But that was the magic of Tebow. There was no reason for it. And why is he suddenly playing well in the fourth quarter, rising to the occasion and and being that guy when the chips were down? That's what tim Tebow was made of and it was stunning to watch. But in the end, you know, look, we thought it was over. They lost three in a row. Suddenly it was they couldn't put

points on the board. And here comes Pittsburgh into town. And oh, by the way, this is a Pittsburgh Steelers team that gets to this game with one of the best defensive years this franchise has had. They allowed the fewest points, fewest passing yards in total yards overall in the NFL. Alright, typical strong defense like they've always had, but this one was extremely strong. Alright, So this is they're gonna come in and they're gonna just lay waste

to the Broncos Tebows. They're not gonna move the football at all. Offenses where things got a little wacky. This is back when Mike Wallace was the star wide receiver. But you know, before he was just a deep threat. You know, Mike Wallace was the guy and when his

genius was taking advantage of broken plays. He would only catch like maybe four passes a game, but he was still went up with a hundred yards because it was a broken play where Roethlisberger would buy time and Mike Wallace would cut all the way across the field and suddenly a broken play is a forty five yard game to Mike Wallace, I mean it was his team. Emmanuel Sanders was up and coming, Hines Ward was near the

end of his career, but he was still contributing. And oh, by the way, this was a second year for Antonio Brown with the Pittsburgh Steelers, so their offense was in a bit of a transition phase. But here's Antonio Brown back when he was a guy that won the competition to be the third wide receiver out of camp after Antoine Randall l left the team. He was returning kicks and punts and he did it for a long time. Think about that, How crazy that was. Here's the best

wide receiver in the NFL. We're putting him out there to get hurt returning kicks and punts. But this was just his second year in the league where he was the third wide receiver. Other guys were starting. It was other players out there the Steeler trying to figure out what their offense looked like. And he had a really good year. He caught sixty nine passes yards, just a couple of touchdowns. And once you see that This is a big jumping off point for him. He wound up

making the Pro Bowl this year along with Wallace and Roethlisberger. Okay, hey, Steeler's offense is now loaded up again. We're ready to go. You know it was. It was off the Antoine Randall L. Hines Ward situation, Super Bowl forty Jerome Bettis Now this turned into air Pittsburgh and and for the better part of a decade, this Dealer's team was absolutely low wide receiver. And this was kind of the beginning of that time,

cycling guys in and out. I just remember going to training camp, out a visit, a meeting up with Ton Chilkin and and and Craig Wolfley, two guys who played for the team broadcast for the team, and they always had me out. We talked some football and go down on the practice field and we're standing there watching the wide receivers warm up. And this is would have been so watching Brown as a rookie. And now like come here.

It's like I gotta talked to Wallace in a minute, like Michael Waite for you come here, come he goes what because watch this guy's footwork and and he was going through some basic drills and it's Antonio Brown just working hard like this is practice is done. Like we'd already done all arounds and watched the fights and and all of that fun stuff that you'd get in Latrobe. Uh, and guys were getting to their individual work after the long workout in the in the blazing sun. As like

this kid is gonna be a star. He and and he knows it. That's like, okay, that's good. Just wait and that's all they said about it. It's like, this is the guy you want to tell people who the breakout guy is gonna be. Mike's gonna have a big year, but watch watch Antonio. So I go back, I interviewed Mike Wallace and you know, say hi to Antonio and the other guy hasn't gone. But I just remember them just so very lately, just going he knows he's good, but look at the work and watch the footwork out

of every break and I mean they were right. He goes on to become just an absolute monster on the field. This is the journey of both teams to this game. Before Antonio Brown would become the best wide receiver in the National Football League and then one of the biggest head cases and pains in the National Football League. He was the second year player who was rapidly ascending everything.

Even though the game was gonna be in Denver because of the when you win a division, you play the wild card team, it still looked like it was gonna be a Pittsburgh runaway and it was anything but we'll get into that coming up next Special Teams with Jason

Smith and Mike Carmen tim Tebow's playoff win. It is that time time for the playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers, who had the best defense in the National Football League in an offense that was starting to find itself, versus the Denver Broncos, who were just hoping to find something after a really bad three week losing streak. Now, all week long, the Broncos players talked about how they felt lost. They were desperate. Tebow was still the same guy. He

would sprint two drills all week long. Criticism of him was at all time high. It doesn't matter. His throwing motion was too long, he wasn't accurate enough, criticized by NFL players, didn't matter. Tebow led by example that week in practice and a big conversation he had with John Elway, who told him, listen, just pulled the trigger. Just throw, all right, just you do you, but pull the trigger and throw. Don't think too much, react and let's see

what happens. And that's clearly the attitude the Broncos went into this game with because they had nothing to lose. You look there, eight and eight. They had a great roller coaster season, but no one expected them to win this game. No, it was a season they were already playing with house money quite a while. The fact that they win the tiebreaker in a three way tie for the a f C West to get into the playoffs.

I mean, that's another one of the divine inspiration moments, right, A streaky team playing terribly and he was awful down the stretch. Yet you find yourself in this moment. So what do you you figure the Steelers, Dick le Beau. They're gonna be aggressive, that's the way they operate, and especially against the guy like tebow a don't let that body get in motion like your Jets did, or nobody wanted to come up and challenge him. Sorry, the Bears did the same thing. So I can't push away from that.

But you know, so take that away. But also you know, you're you're figuring your corners and and your safeties are going to be able to work because you have that big wind up and the ball that oftentimes just kind of floated out there, right, he had a strong arm, just a matter of accuracy and and putting a little bit too much air at times and giving guys a chance to make a break and make a play. And

so it seemed like the logical, logical game plans. So you go and you you punch them in the mouth, hoping that you're gonna hit on a couple of big ones. And again, this is another game where the opponent of Tim Tebow helped him to have a great day because the Steelers loaded up on the run. They they they decided, you are not going to run the football on us and beat us. We're gonna make Tebow throw the football. And we're still gonna run up and load up and

put eight guys in the box all day. Well, take out mcgahey, and then also, don't let Tebow do a bunch of you know, quarterback draws. Right, Let's let's not let him gain momentum. Here he goes off tackle for eight yards nine yards. Don't let him feel it. We're gonna put everybody in the box, and Tebow's not accurate enough to stop anybody. We're Willis mcgahey, who now they were relying on to be the running back with no Seawan Marino out. This was where the Steelers said, this

is how we're gonna win this game. Tebow completes just ten out of one passes on the day, but he still winds up throwing for three hundred and sixteen yards and two touchdowns, averaging thirty yards per completion. Yeah, that was the kind of day Tebow had. The big plays he made were in the passing game, right, when when you try to stop the run and you load up, you just have to hit on one play and what's

the odject on one play repeatedly? Well, the odds were in Tim Tebow's favor that day because he kept hitting those big pass plays. He also ran enough, ran for enough yards to keep Pittsburgh's defense honest. He ran for fifty yards in the touchdown in this game. And this is a game in which Tebow and the Broncos lost Eric Decker early to an injury, because, hey, you know the weapons they had in Denver at wide receiver they were in slouchy. Decker was one of the better wide

receivers in the NFL. And to Marius Thomas, he's in the middle of a run where he might be the best wide receiver in the NFL at this point. I mean, people forget that. You know, he had a run where he was as good as it got for anybody in the National Football League. And so you have Thomas and you have Eric Decker. Hey, you should be able to make plays in the passing game. But losing Eric Decker, all right, maybe this is gonna be it for the Broncos. How difficult is it gonna be for them to throw

the football? Will? Still they were able to throw the football well. To Marius Thomas only caught four passes, but the four passes he had in this game two hundred and four yards and a touchdown four for a hundreds of pretty good game. This is four for two hundred for to Maririus Thomas. That's not a bad look, right,

I mean, you got chunked plays throughout the game. Uh. And obviously we'll build up to the crescendo here, but you know, Eddie Royal step it up and make it a big playing had another guy that ended up as a bear. Yeah, they all do. They all do that, big. How did Tim Tebow never wear a bear? You never know, you never know. He could still wind up, You never know, you could still leave the Mets and and come back. I mean, that is the curiosity. Though Daniel Fells also

had a forty yard catch, so that's selling out. Left a lot of space over the middle. If Tebow had been even that much more accurate, this might not have been a game at all. Uh, this is how it would go. Tebow would be bottled up and then he hit for a big play. Right. He had a fifty one and fifty eight yard completions to Marius Thomas to set up two touchdowns in the second quarter. So that's how it went for Tebow in the first half. Bottle up, bottle up, bottle up, big play, bottle up, bottle up,

bottle up, big play. But then Tebow and Denver's offense was completely shut down in the second half for the Steelers, Isaac Redman was gashing Denver on the ground. Roethlisberger doesn't have a great game, but he's good enough and he was clutch. Pittsburgh scores ten points in the final ten minutes to tie this game twenty three. It looks like they could potentially win the game, but the Broncos defense comes up big. They force overtime. On the final drive.

They sacked Roethlisberger three times, and Roethlisberger after the game you talked about and lamented that final drive because he got sacked three times, he fumbled once. He said, somebody got a finger on the football. So this first half goes all Denver's way. The second half goes all Pittsburgh's way. They have a chance to win this game in the final minutes, but Denver's defense, which this is the beginning of their great run defensively as well. Denver's defense comes

up big and they force overtime. So Pittsburgh they own the second half. And I remember watching this game going overtime, going this is one of those games where it's just a matter of time before Pittsburgh wins. You know what, what are the Broncos really gonna do here? They haven't done anything in two quarters. They haven't moved the football at all. Everything was great in the first half and Tebow was able to gash them, but boy, this Heelers

have really been just on top of things. And even if the Broncos get the football, are they really gonna move it? It's just gonna be inevitable that the Deelers are gonna get a field goal, get a touchdown, and they're gonna win this game. Well, and that was one of the beautiful things. I mean, even though you have this robust final scores, that you have two of the best defenses getting after it. Uh. And they supported well the and gave Tebow all those opportunities for to make

those miraculous plays. And here was another opportunity right here, Ben Roethlisberger, who finished just shy of three hundred yards on the day. Uh. Emmanuel Sanders leading them with eighty one receiving yards. Heath Miller, remember how clutch he was

over the middle for them all those years. Uh. And Isaac Redman, who's the answer to a trivia question, and all of this, but five sacks absorbed by Roethlisberger on the day at the statue s standing in the pocket trying to get a guy loose down the sideline right as we've watched him do how many times, you know, you and I watching game in the studio. It's like, just get rid of the ball. Live to see another day. Here he's one of those guys that will try to

fight off stand with guys shaking off his legs. But eventually, you know, even the biggest tree topples. So three times in that big possession and you kick yourself wondering what if you just get rid of the ball once and don't give up the couple of yards off the sack. So we go to overtime, tied twenty three, and the

Denver Broncos get the football first. This was the first playoff game with the new overtime rules that were put into effect because oh Bred Farve didn't get a chance to get the football and overtime against the Saints, and it was so sad. So the new overtime rule was, if you kicked a field goal on your first possession, the other team got the ball back and they got

a chance to drive unless someone scored a touchdown first. Right, So that was the rule when it first came out, was if you score a touch first, team to score a touchdown wins. If you score a touchdown to you win, But if you kick a few goal on the first drive, the other team gets the football and a chance to

potentially tie or win the game. These were the new rules and they were still kind of everybody was getting used to them, because, look, they had been in place already, but we hadn't had an overtime playoff game with the new rules in it yet. So here was the first time we saw the new game, or we saw the new rules in this game, and we had to think about him. On the very first play of overtime, you can still see Tim Tebow's big wind up on the throw.

The Broncos have the football first in ten and Pittsburgh again decides we are going to play the run. And right before the snap, Pittsburgh brings their defensive backs up and it's one on one coverage of Ike Taylor, who was a pretty good cover cornerback onto Marrius Thomas. It's not a running play, you know, the Steelers were expecting a running play. But Tebow drops back in the pocket and he delivers a laser over the middle to Demarius Thomas.

Now this play was a surprising play. Should have been a twenty yard play and oh look at this, hey, big play there up, you know, close to midfield. But instead Demarrius Thomas gives the stiff farm of a lifetime to Ike Taylor, who is then just I think he gets enveloped by the ground. I think Ike Taylor actually falls underground off of this stiff farm by de Marius Thomas. He could have been stopped for twenty five yard game. It doesn't happen, and Thomas outraces everybody to the end

zone eleven seconds, the quickest overtime in NFL history. Mile High goes crazy and Thomas tries to come back out of the tunnel to celebrate, but he can't because his teammates are already running through the tunnel. Ladd him. Tebow Is is praying on the field. Fans are grabbing their heads. They can't believe what they just saw. And the Broncos win this game, first playoff overtime. It was as shocking

as it could be. But I guarantee you this, Mike Harmen, the average football fan is saying, the game's over right. The game's over right because the new rules to touchdown the wait, the Steelers don't get the ball back now. So while everybody's going crazy in Denver, the people are watching on TV and we're all going so it's over right. I guarantee of fans and Denver. We're going we score a touchdown. Wait, we're still playing as a game over. The game's over. Well, it's funny, that's what it was.

They put up the big graphic right the full screen with all the rules and and then different ways and that this spiders out to get you to a conclusion of the game. I was waiting for them to fire that one back up, by the way, and let me circle this on the telestrator. Games over, Games over. But to your point, I mean, Damarius Thomas, what is he about? Six three and a half to thirty two thirty five? Man Taylor comes over, usually a pretty sure tackler. He

can't even get a hand on him. Thomas cradles the ball in his right arm, left arm goes straight up with a jab like he's boxing Mike Tyson. And that's it. Gets yourself enough separation and there's no catching him. And like I said, for da Marius Thomas, this is the beginning of his breakout in the National Football League, because the next three years, his the next four years four hundred yards, four hundred yards, sixteen hundred yards, hundred yards.

His touchdowns are ten, fourteen, eleven. Arguably this is the best wide receiver in the National Football League and this was really his You thought it was Tim Tebow's coming out part. Look at look at Tim Tebow was back and he's great. No, this was Hey, wait, Amrius Thomas is pretty damn good. No, my goodness, he might be

the best guy in the game. Yeah. I mean, you had what five straight years with at least ninety receptions, just crazy production, dugging all those double digit touchdown years and just being able to dominate in one on one situations. Even after he left Denver and we said, all right, maybe he's in New England, Houston. Uh Jets, Uh you you kept waiting, but but you kept waiting for him to show flashes of that guy that he was prior to say, two thousand seventeen into two thousand eighteen, where

things kind of changed up for him. I mean that he was a guy that was just an absolute monster for for five years there, and I mean that's about as much of a run as we can expect from most most receivers of that level of dominance. And he's one of those guys that once he had thirty years old, that's where the slide came, right. He was great, and then he was thirty, and then after he was thirty, he was on three different teams and and and that

was it for him. And now he's knocking around and he he had to go to the Jets to continue his career. I mean serious, And that's about it. Let's just think about the just the ending of this game though, this is the I went to make myself sandwich. I'm listening to them. You go through the new playoff overtime rules, and then it's done. It's done. You couldn't have warmed it up. You couldn't even layered the cheese on that

you love so much. This play, this eight yard touchdown, was so it was like a flash flood that you didn't see it coming. And again I said, you can see Tebow's big long wind up on the play, but it doesn't matter because he had time and it was money. And another part of this play that doesn't get enough attention is that Thomas out races safety Ryan Mundy to the end zone for a touchdown. All right, so to Marys, Thomas makes to catch. He stiff arms a great stiff

farm for Ike Taylor. But this is where he should get caught at some point because he's coming down the sideline and Steelers players are coming over, Monday can't catch him and he gets in the end zone for a touchdown. Monday is only playing. He's the backup because Ryan Clark, who was one of the best safeties in the NFL, the regular starter, couldn't play in this game because remember, Ryan Clark has that rare blood condition. Yeah, that mile high conditions elevate, So it wasn't safe for him to

play in this game. And you've seen this now over the course of the past years, people with that sickle cell, and I can't play in Denver. I gotta sit this game out. So Ryan Clark couldn't play in this game. And you know, he had a great quote after saying, no, you know, it wasn't that. You know, we we played this game. You don't say that that we would have won if I had played, But you don't We wonder what that play would have looked like if Ryan Clark

was playing. You wonder what a lot of these passing plays that Tebow was able to pull off in the game would have looked like if Ryan Clark was playing, because he was that good. And maybe he catches to Marry as Thomas at the forty yard line and things turn out differently, or maybe you know, he doesn't allow a big completion, helps you know, has helped over the top on one of the other big completions that set up a score that they had earlier in the day.

But Ryan Clark missing this game and that was a huge deal. And still the Steelers played that big press coverage the whole game. We're putting up guys up in the box and trying to make sure that Denver has to try to throw the football to beat us. And guess what, Denver through the football and they beat him now and that and that's it. You take advantage. You know, it's an unfortunate circumstance with Ryan Clark that he couldn't

be there. I mean, in this particular play him in Monday takes a bad angle trying to get over Uh and make up after Taylor Uh takes his swing and missus with stiff arms. So you know, could he have forced him out of bounds? Can gotten himself? You know, maybe they're at field goal range and look, field goal range was midfield uh in Denver at that time. But the idea being that you know, you at least play

get another play to try to make a play. And here you know, for the Steelers, they kept selling out and give Tebo credit. Only completed ten basses. That's all we needed. Fans voted at the best home field moment in Broncos sports history. And this is a team that's had a lot of big home field moments. Yeah, John Elway making last minute drives now the number one moment in Broncos history. Excitement of tebow Mania was at its peak. Now suddenly Tebow was back in whoa we get to

play the Patriots? Can Bill Belichick stop Tim Tebow? Tebow could be on the run. Know, this was the end of Tim Tebow. It was the pinnacle of his NFL career. We get into it, we'll tell you how things broke down for him and the Broncos and Steelers coming up next on special teams. What happened to both the Steelers and the Broncos following Tim Tebow's playoff win? Well, because we finished things up here on special teams today. Uh, not quite the direction that you would think for either

of these teams. Pittsburgh goes home in two thousand and twelve, they go eight and eight. Hines Ward is cut and retires. He's maybe the most underrated wide receiver of the last twenty years because he did it all. Yes, he was dirty, but he called eight he passes a season, he blocked down fielded all of this, despite the fact he didn't get along well with Ben Roethlisberger. But the Dealers did in the off season was let's improve the running game

a little bit. So they draft levy On Bell in the first round and this is the beginning of the triplets of Roethlisberger and Bell and Antonio Brown that brought them the great playoff fights, though not a Super Bowl. Uh. The rest of the decade. All hinens Ward did was then go and race to the end zone in Gotham City. Uh. I don't really think that he was fast enough for that touchdown. It seemed kind of odd. I'd like to

check that out a little bit again. I mean, that's the whole other thing of movie making, uh, and believability. But you know what I worked with, and I'm still trying to get one of those uniforms in many helmets. But yeah, to your point, Hines Ward fantastic receiver, big numbers, was always on the spot, and those running backs and and offensive Lineman. I'm sure paid for some of his meals because he out make those numbers look that much

better blocking down field, there's no question about it. And well you all and you know all about Levyan Bellet so good, so good with it. Um, So that was the look it was. It was a tough loss, obviously in the wild card game, and then the next year was difficult as well, because the Steelers don't have five or under seasons. I mean, look, they don't. They don't have many. Going eight and eight is about that's as bad as a guess. Alright, this is a team that

hasn't been under eight and eight in a long time. Alright. They were six and ten and two thousand and three, okay, and then they were six and ten in nine and seven and nine, and then before that you're going all the way back to this is a team that is good every year. And here they are able to restart their franchise building around Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown and Levi on Bell Now for the Denver Broncos. The next week they go to New England and well that was it

for them. Belichick shuts down Tebo. But more importantly, it was the Patriots offense that blew through this terrific Broncos defense, because it wasn't so much that Tebow was awful, it was Brady and the Patriots. It was fourteen nothing before you could blink. And I don't know there was anyway Tim Tebow was gonna win that game because clearly the Broncos out of formula. We gotta keep it close and

our quarterback makes clutch plays and wins the game. This game was never close, all right, And I wonder if this game losing to the Patriots like this, seeing the way Brady and the Patriots offense moved through them, was the decision that Elway needed to make to say, you know what, We're only gonna be so good when we have Tebow at quarterback, so we gotta go on and make a different decision and get somebody else in, which is crazy considering the season you just came off of.

The guy's a cult hero, and John Elway decides, let's move on at quarterback because we need to be more dynamic, and that's what they did by going out and getting Peyton Manning, who was coming off an injury. The Colts moved on because they had Andrew Luck Peyton Manning chose the Denver Broncos. Hey, he knew I was gonna get more life on my fastball throwing the football in the mile high air, and the Broncos, after one great year of Tim tebo Oh, signed Peyton Manning, future Hall of Famer.

You can't say they did it wrong because they went to two Super Bowls and they won one. But it was still shocking to see we're gonna turn the page on Tebow after the year. Yet really we're just gonna let him go there And there was part of always crazy but while we're bringing in Peyton Manning, So okay, clearly he knew what he was doing there for a quarterback,

but it didn't matter. It was wait a minute, did this guy just had an all time season as a quarterback and now he's gonna be looking for a new team. Fourteen games, eleven starts, seven and four record, uh and bounced. He completed six of his passes that year. So when you're talking about everything going in your favor, and you and I have talked about this on our show on Fox Sports Radio for years, where you have a season,

you don't have any injuries, everybody's healthy. I may go back to the year Derek Carr was an m VP candidate. Everything was right until he was until he got hurt, right until But I mean like they didn't lose any

time on either side of the ball. Everything worked likewise, this Denverse squad, and you mentioned Noshean Marina going down a big loss, but mcgahey was still a twelve yard rusher they still had and Tebow was averaging what forty nine yards or a game or thereabouts for for part of that streak that you're you're getting enough out of your running game to give you some balance, but you're you're really forcing the defense to give up nothing to

give you a chance to win because you couldn't guarantee that that next eight yard pass was coming, that the skies would open or you know, there there'd be a hole on the field. So you going back to Hines Warden Baine, uh there. But the idea that you have that you needed more consistency and continuity, And as luck would have it, you've got Peyton Manning coming and making his tours and deciding where he wants to play football. So if you were going to move on from an

icon or budding icon on in Tebow. There was only one way you were gonna be able to do that and not have blowback. You know. The thing that I don't get is that this is you know, take out for a second the fact that it's Tim Tebow. Here is a starting quarterback in the NFL, his first year to start, after getting drafted and getting groomed, and he plays really well at times, and he played fantastic at times. Yeah,

sometimes he played poorly. Yeah, but this is a guy in his first year as a starter that made big plays that one games that won a big home playoff game which he threw for three yards and ran for fifty more and ran for a touchdown. Why didn't anybody think, well, a whole off season as the starter, all the reps, why can't he improve because we would say that for

any other quarterback. Well, look at what he did his first Boy, I can't wait and when he's installed as a starter and having the whole off season, they can work with him now more. And he's the guy. I don't understand why nobody thought he could get better now it turned out this is this was his peak. But I don't get why there was no thought, well, hey, Tebow's really something. Now we can work him and really turn him into something. There was just no what's done,

and we're moving on. And I was I was remember, I remember going, yeah, but any other guy, we would say, well, now let's let's build off of this and let's find a way to do it. But nobody wanted to do it. Yeah, and look you and it makes sense for what Denver did, Right, You've got the opportunity to bring in Peyton Manning assuming

everything with the neck checked out. You know what he's bringing to the table, and you certainly had wide receiver weapons and abudding defense that was gonna make it work. So yeah, you kick him to the curve. But so many other teams. I mean every year we've got nine to ten teams playing quarterback roulette, either through some journey men as a placeholder and hoping it works or a failure.

For a comparison, I guess you have the longer view and that it's he's had years in the system, but you had Jamis Winston that you could have retained in Tampa five thousand. You are it's thirty thirty guy. I know when you say thirty thirty it kind of kills your own argument. But the idea that you had a lot of big moments with him and it would have been a second year with Bruce arians and instead Tom Brady is available, so hey see you, uh again it makes sense. But another guy that had to wait his

time before you ever even found another opportunity. And maybe you know, we'll have a great resurrection and a part two and you and I'll sit into a special teams on the brilliance of Jameis Winston's second act. But Tim Tebow it just didn't come. And and there's I guess

a lot of reasons that it goes to. And we talk a lot about going into a camp and competing for a job and when you're likely going to spend some of your season, if not all of it, on the bench, how many teams are built with the stability and continuity that you want to bring that in for a guy who's going to be a backup. That we became one of the biggest talking points I think we have had in the decade. So the Broncos signed Peyton Manning and now they have something to do with Tim Tebow.

They wind up training him to the New York Jets for a couple of draft picks. And this tells you about Tebow and a little bit about Rex Ryan too is here's the Jets have the playoff icon and hero of the past year, and he can't get on the field. He couldn't beat out Mark Sanchez. Okay, he was the personal punt protector. They rarely ran place for him because the Jets still believed that Mark Sanchez was gonna be really, really good and he wasn't. And he winds up leaving

New York. He wasn't happy with the year he had with the Jets there, and he's been out of the NFL for a long time. And who knew that that game was going to be the pinnacle that he hit in his National Football League career. That touchdown passed to Marius Thomas was the last great moment he was going to have. It's almost as if he came around too early, because if he came out of the NFL now, there would be some NFL offensive grew that would say, give

me Tebow. I'm going to build an offense around him. And you watch just like the Panthers did with Cam Newton, all right, because it was the same deal. Cam Newton was a rookie, Hey everything is great and Cam Newton, but Cam Newton could throw the football a little bit better, with a little bit more accuracy. He would have three

three fifty games regularly. So, okay, we can build our offense around Cam Newton because still running the football, he was the same kind of guy running as Tim Tebow was, but he was a little bit more accurate throwing the ball. Carolina Panthers built their offense around him, and and for nearly a decade. Look how great it was. They got to the Super Bowl a year with Cam Newton. If Tebow came around now, it would be the same thing.

A team would try to build around him, would try to build him throwing the football a little bit better. But it was just a little bit too early for him. And so this is why he winds up being out of the league not too long after he throws that big touchdown pass into Marius Thomas. I do dig that you got his former teammate at Florida, Cam Newton into discussion. You know, a guy who's accuracy wasn't much better than Ebos on the grand scale, right, but he had a

stronger arm could throw it further down the reel. I mean that that's what he did. Really didn't have the as being a wind up and throw off that back foot like crazy. I'm not stepping into a throw and getting hit. I'm gonna throw out that back foot. Yeah, threw it more on a rope than the big arching lollipop that we'd get sometimes from Tebow as you go through. I remember going to training camp and watching that Jets competition and they'd have the cones out of all right,

stay within the tackles basically, and he was terrible. It was, it was just awesome. And then they'd say, all right, take the cones out, we're gonna run full elevens and he would scramble enough to where he'd be break contain mitt and to be able to make a play and find a guy down field or you know, run for a bunch of yards, you know what, whatever drills they were doing. But it was frustrating, you know, and you

could see it on his face. It's just not it's not clicking right because it's like, all right, want you know, but it might as well out of the twelve in Mississippi and he still wasn't getting rid of the football. So, you know, difficulty in reading those situations. So eventually, you know, he did show up as a member of the Patriots for a minute, so got that. Yeah it was it was a minute. It was long enough to get a

trading card produced, so you got that. But yeah, it's one of those fascinating things we talked about players being a little bit of ahead of their time or wondering if they've gotten a second chance. Uh, you know the old sliding doors thing, you know, taking up the old Gwyneth Paltrow movie. There you go, there's my nerd moment

of pop culture. But you know it, had he been able to get with a coordinator that wanted to work, even if he never became a sixty five percent completion guy on quick hitch and and quick outs, I mean, couldn't have worked for a few years while he was still such a bulldozer and the run game. All right, I'm a little aware, are they now from this game nearly a decade later? Let's get it on. Yeah, you've got Daniel Fells. He went through the entrepreneurship program at

Stanford and works for Applied Silver. So they're researching how to treat and cure infectious diseases. Well, that's very important how about that. And most of time he also spends a lot of time helping raises two kids. So that's good. You've got Dante Rosario. He's a recruiter at Amazon time. Pretty good time for him right now. Might have to look him up. You know, he wants He once scored

a touchdown. I think it was for the Chargers that won a game, and I think it was on CBS, and you know, he scores a touchdown and they like they go to break and come back and they have like the the recap of the game on you know what happened here, you know, and and Dante Rosario, you know, touchdown win the game, except that you know was blah blah blah. Here's the status. There was Rosario Dawson, you know,

todown reception that in I'm like, Rosario Dawson. Yeah, but it got you to think about Rosario Dawson, and you know that that's not bad. All right. We got Andre Goodman does some real estate work, but he's the director of Player Personnel uh in the for the University of South Carolina, So we got him. We got Mario Hagen uh he works for athletic and he does Yeah, and then Kwan Cosby. He does risk management just like George Costanza from Marshan mclenn Marshan McLennan Company. Uh So, there

you go. He was a kick returner for the squad. And of course I mentioned all those guys that would graduate to go become Chicago Bears estently and everybody else round up with a Bear. So that's where everybody and that's where they all went. So there's our look back at Tim Tebow's playoff win, that passing through to Damarius Thomas, the last great moment he had in the National Football League.

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