(Reuters) – Former National Football League quarterback Tim Tebow’s hopes of making a longshot comeback as a tight end for the Jacksonville Jaguars is over as the team cut him on Tuesday after one preseason game.
The 34-year-old Tebow, who last appeared in a NFL regular-season game in 2012, had signed with the struggling Jaguars in May, three months after he announced his retirement from professional baseball.
During Jacksonville’s preseason game on Saturday, Tebow played 16 offensive snaps and failed to register a completion on his one target during a 23-13 loss to Cleveland.
Tebow, a former Heisman Trophy winner as the most outstanding college football player who won a huge following for his openly devout Christian beliefs as much as for his heroics on the gridiron, thanked the Jaguars for the opportunity.
“Thankful for the highs and even the lows, the opportunities, and the setbacks,” Tebow wrote on Twitter. “I’ve never wanted to make decisions out of fear of failure and I’m grateful for the chance to have pursued a dream…
“Thank you to the @Jaguars organization and everyone who has supported me in this journey. And we know that… God works all things together for good. Romans 8:28.”
Tebow won two college championships while playing quarterback at the University of Florida in his hometown of Jacksonville before being selected in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos.
He led Denver to an improbable playoff berth in his second season but became expendable when the team signed free agent quarterback Peyton Manning.
Tebow was traded to the New York Jets in 2012, where he was cut after one season, and then failed to make the rosters of the New England Patriots in 2013 and Philadelphia Eagles in 2015.
He eventually became a college football analyst before switching to baseball in 2016 when he signed a minor league contract with Major League Baseball’s New York Mets.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
