It is a mere baby step in a journey that will go a long way toward shaping the success or failure of the 2012 Jets, but today marks the start of the Tebow Experiment.
The Jets don’t play a real game for another five months, but as their strength and conditioning program begins today, so begins their season, because it will be the first time they will convene since Tim Tebow was acquired in that controversial trade last month.
When we last saw the Jets on the field, petulant receiver Santonio Holmes was sulking on the sideline in Miami in the season finale after being kicked out of his team’s huddle by his own teammates for repeated acts of selfishness.
When we last saw the Jets together as a team — and we use the word team loosely — linebacker Bart Scott was flipping reporters and cameramen the middle finger on his way out of the locker room the day after the season ended, spewing cocky chatter about the guaranteed $4 million he still had coming to him on his contract.
Much has happened to the Jets since their 2011 season of promise blew up in their faces like a malfunctioned bottle rocket.
Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer was persuaded to resign, and was replaced by deposed Dolphins coach Tony Sparano.
Then came the trade for Tebow. Now we watch and see how it all plays out, and it’s certain to be fascinating theater. Jets coach Rex Ryan, who would sooner turn down a great Mexican meal (his favorite food) than he would a moment of publicity, has run faster from the prospect of an HBO “Hard Knocks’’ sequel to 2010 than any of his defensive players ran trying to catch Tebow on his game-winning touchdown run against the Jets last November in Denver.
So, as Tebow and his new teammates meet for the first time today, the complicated and delicate process of how to incorporate their newest toy begins for the Jets.
On the surface, the acquisition of Tebow, who was booed while watching the Yankees take on the Angels last night at Yankee Stadium, is a good football move.
While few would argue Tebow is a great quarterback, fewer can argue he’s not a terrific football player. You won’t find a Jets fan who’ll complain if he wins a game or two for them this season with his pure athletic ability.
But it’ll be a good football move only if the Jets manage it properly, and that’s asking a lot considering the clumsy way they too often have handled matters of importance.
How Tebow is utilized on the field by Ryan and Sparano — and how the Jets manage the circus that comes with the Elvis-like popularity Tebow brings with him wherever he goes — will determine how good a move this was.
Jets fans already are clamoring for Tebow to unseat Mark Sanchez before a pass has been thrown. Ryan must deflect that mania by defining Tebow’s role from the outset and sticking to it. Ryan’s reticence about doing “Hard Knocks’’ again is evidence of his concern for the combustible potential of combining reality TV with Tebowmania.
All Sanchez has to do is perform well. As long as he does that, he should have no issues with the specter of Tebow hovering over his shoulder. If Sanchez is not good enough to show improvement from 2011 and not tough enough to handle Tebow’s presence then he doesn’t belong quarterbacking in New York.
Much will fall on Tebow to blend in on a team that endured much of last season with locker room tumult. Based on conversations with his teammates in Denver last season, I offer a Namath-like guarantee Tebow will do nothing but endear himself to his teammates, because that’s what he does everywhere he goes.
The strength and conditioning program, which will run for several weeks, does not include on-field coaching so there will be no practices until the organized team activities start next month. But the program does mark the beginning of team bonding. And the Jets, as evidenced by the unraveling end to last season, are in need of a lot of bonding. So, let the experiment begin.