What Endorsement Did Tim Tebow Turn Down Before the Patriots Cut Him?

Tim Tebow wrote a book and released it last month. Nobody seems to be talking about it, but Darren Rovell read part of it and pulled this excerpt about Tebow’s brief, and apparently costly, time with the Patriots. Read up:

What’s the timeline on this story? Did Belichick cut Tebow right after he told him not to take $1 million? Or did Belichick think Tebow still had a chance to make the team when this exchange took place? That would be a whole new level of evil, even for Belichick.

It seems impossible to think Tebow was in any position to turn down $1 million at that point in his career. His Patriots contract had a base salary of $630,000, and he would have needed to play 60% of the snaps to get an extra half million. Even someone as positive-thinking as Tebow couldn’t have expected that to be a real possibility.

Still, Tebow is one of the few football players whose earning potential seems limited, but unending. Media was always waiting for him to finish his playing career. Turning down $1 million in 24 hours seems crazy, but he had to know it wouldn’t take long to earn that back when his career ended.

The real question is, what kind of endorsement would make Tim Tebow waiver at such easy money? Was it something borderline controversial (by Tim Tebow’s impeccable standards) poking fun at himself? Was it something he ever really considered in the first place or just a chance to show Bill Belichick that the only thing that ever really mattered to him was being a team player?

What endorsement could make him a distraction and not seem like “one of the guys?” At what point in Tebow’s career did he seem like “one of the guys?” At what point was he not a media circus? Tebow has always been bigger than his team, no matter how small a part of the team he actually was. This story – vague as it is with actual details – just adds to that.