The release of Tim Tebow yesterday comes too late for Mike Tannenbaum, too late for Rex Ryan, too late for Mark Sanchez, and too late for Tebow.
The Yankees had their Core Four.
The Jets have their Poor Four.
The ill-fated decision to trade for Tebow 13 months ago set off a chain of circus events that helped cost Tannenbaum the Jets GM job, wrecked Ryan and ruined Sanchez and Tebow both.
The egregious mishandling of Tebow also resulted in the dismissals of offensive coordinator Tony Sparano, now Raiders offensive line coach, and quarterbacks coach Matt Cavanaugh, now Bears quarterbacks coach.
The worst thing the Jets could have done to Sanchez at a time when he was already reeling was foist the most popular backup quarterback in NFL history on him, especially here.
In the interests of providing Geno Smith an antiseptic environment where he has at least a chance to function, the Jets should allow Sanchez to follow Tebow out the door, via trade if at all possible, but at any and all cost, and let David Garrard serve as mentor, start the season, and when Smith is deemed ready by new offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, let him play so you can find out whether he has a chance to be your franchise quarterback, or whether you need to draft one next year.
Sanchez is an $8.25 million guaranteed albatross, a haunting link to a buttfumbled recent past, a $17.2 million salary cap memory if the Jets designate him a June 1 release.
Ryan is a lame-duck coach because he has missed the playoffs two years in a row, and when you ruin your hand-picked franchise quarterback, you ultimately pay the price, and deserve no mulligan if you miss the playoffs again with a rookie quarterback.
You could understand Tebow kneeling outside Ryan’s office to begin Tebowing when the football gods finally answered his prayers.
Free, free, Freebow at last!
Now, as Tebow, first on the depth chart only at the positions of publicity stunt, PSL lure and merchandise seller, religiously chases his NFL quarterback dream, you hope that he can overcome his wasted year of betrayal.
My advice:
Go, Canada.
Go to the CFL — if Bill Belichick won’t throw you a lifeline as jack of all trades and see if you can learn how to throw the ball so the NFL might give you a second chance one day.
Or the Arena League, where the Orlando Predators are interested.
Tebow’s crime — his only crime — is he simply cannot throw the football effectively enough at this level to succeed, his miracle 2011 playoff run in Denver notwithstanding.
The Jets’ crime was never giving him the chance to prove he is a different player on Sundays than he is during the week. And when he was permitted to disrupt the rhythm of Sanchez and the offense, they wouldn’t let him throw the ball, and everyone knew what was coming. He threw eight passes, was in for 77 offensive snaps. He cost the Jets $4,102,000. But you can never have enough Tebow. And boy, personal punt protectors like this come along once every generation.
Tebow was summoned to replace Brad Smith as Wildcat quarterback.
“Sparano coached him at the Senior Bowl,” Tannebaum said the other day, “he really liked him, Rex met him at the Super Bowl, at an event, really liked him. … I just felt like if we feel this is the right football decision, and we know it’s gonna come with a lot of other … obviously notoriety … we should still do it because we could manage that. … If he helps us win for the price of a fourth-round pick, it makes a lot of sense.”
Ryan warned the NFL at the time that Tebow could get as many as 20 snaps a game.
“Tim is going to be a major contributor to our football team,” Ryan said. “With the Wildcat specifically, the great thing is you don’t know if we’re going to run it one snap a game or 20 snaps a game — you have no idea. Every week it could be different. That’s some of the preparation problems he gives you.”
Johnson 13 months ago: “From a football standpoint, he adds flexibility, versatility, he’s a great athlete and he’s a big athlete. He can do a lot of things besides being the backup quarterback. I think all of those things are going to make us a better and stronger team going forward.”
Tebow’s best Jet moment was running shirtless through the rain in Cortland. After that, the shirt hit the fan.
steve.serby@nypost.com