It was only appropriate that the moment Hurricane Tebow really hit with the Jets came in a rainstorm.
Reporters covering the Jets were waiting to interview players on one of the first days of the 2012 training camp at SUNY-Cortland when Tim Tebow, who had been on the team for three months, nearly broke the Internet. Tebow exited the practice field shirtless, jogging across the field and onto the social media accounts of everyone standing there.
Suddenly as the photos circulated, the biggest story of Jets training camp was about pecs and abs instead of touchdowns and interceptions. It was that moment that I realized everything Tebow did was news.
On Thursday, the Mets signed Tim Tebow to a minor-league contract, bringing the virgin messiah back into New York’s orbit. And I know, from covering Tebowmania 1.0, that the circus is back in town.
Covering Tebow for that 2012 season as The Post’s Jets beat reporter gave me a front-row seat for all of the good, the bad and the biceps. For the Jets, it was mostly bad.
The team acquired him from the Broncos in a March trade, bringing the handsome Heisman Trophy winner to New York. He arrived with a resume that included two national championships, a playoff win in Denver and a legion of fans.
The trade happened on a Wednesday. On Thursday, news helicopters were circling the Jets’ headquarters in Florham Park, waiting for his arrival.
The Jets introduced him at a press conference inside their massive indoor practice facility four days later, a space that was not used for a press conference before or since because the media throng was larger that day than for any coach hiring or player acquisition.
The tension between starting quarterback Mark Sanchez and Tebow was immediately clear. The Jets promised Tebow’s presence would not affect Sanchez. Coach Rex Ryan vowed to use Tebow in creative ways. He was going to run. He was going to pass. He was going to catch passes. He was going to be on the punt team. They basically vowed he would do everything other than drive the team bus.
When the Jets actually saw Tebow practice, those plans all fizzled. It was clear he was no threat to Sanchez. He bounced passes all over the practice field and his teammates began to view him as nothing more than a gimmick.
Sanchez was asked why he thought Tebow was there and the usually-guarded Sanchez gave a revealing quote, “Selling seats, man. Selling seats.”
There was no denying Tebow’s popularity. On the night he was traded to the Jets, I gained more than 1,000 Twitter followers. Mostly women. When you cover football, you usually only hear from men. With Tebow, women followed his every move. Being attractive certainly helped his popularity, but it was more than that. Women saw him as the ideal male. While they suspected boyfriends and husbands of cheating, here was the proud Christian Tebow saving himself for marriage.
As reporters, we tried to find out every detail of his life. Where did he live? Who was he dating? He had dinner one night with his college coach Urban Meyer and ate four entrees. No detail was too small.
His virginity was not a topic discussed too often in the locker room, but teammates did tease him about setting him up with track star Lolo Jones, who also talked about staying chaste before marriage.
When the team reported to training camp, tiny Cortland had Tebow signs everywhere. A local Mexican restaurant had the “Tebow Burrito” on the menu. The stands were packed with fans trying to get an autograph.
Owner Woody Johnson seemed giddy to have Tebow, saying “you can never have enough Tebow.”
But everyone around the Jets soon tired of Tebow. The amazing plans that Ryan talked about in the spring never showed up in the fall. Offensive coordinator Tony Sparano seemed baffled as to how to use Tebow. The team built up expectations with a training camp practice that was closed to the public where they were going to run Tebow plays. The media was permitted to watch, but forbidden from writing what they saw.
I think that embargo has expired. That day, they lined up Tebow in the backfield alongside Sanchez, lined him up at receiver and showed a lot of creativity. That was the last time they seemed to run any of it.
The season was a disaster. The team went 6-10. Tebow had a pass from Sanchez bounce off his helmet in the third game of the season. Most of the special Tebow plays consisted of him running into the middle of the offensive line and getting tackled. He did not even get to “Tebow” — take a knee and pray to God — with the Jets because he never reached the end zone.
By the end of the season it was evident that the Tebow experiment was a huge failure. Teammates griped about him anonymously. Players and coaches called him a selfish phony. Ryan chose to start Greg McElroy at quarterback instead of Tebow when they benched Sanchez. Tebow refused to enter one game.
Those who witnessed the Tebow Circus in 2012 with the Jets had to chuckle Thursday when they heard the news the Mets had signed him. Hurricane Tebow is coming back to New York. Unlike Hermine, this hurricane never misses.