Hi.

My name is Jan.

I just finished my first year at the University of Florida, and am glad to be back in DUVAAALLLL for the summer. I usually keep to myself, this is my first post on BCC, but with the White House petition and Morgan & Morgan ad craziness going on, I've decided that enough is enough.

At this point I'm sure I'm just wasting my time trying to be rational with the Tebowites out there, but I've spent the last 8 months in a place that sells cutouts of his head in the bookstore. I've dealt with endless chatter and whining, and usually I just nod my head telling myself "it's okay, they don't know any better." I've tried to be patient, but the recent lengths that are being taken and the "facts" behind bringing him here have become far too frustrating for me to sit and watch all my nephews & nieces handle it.

While I respect the opinion of those Tebow supporters that want him here, I just don't fully understand how so many of them blissfully reject reasonable arguments as to why it wouldn't work. What did he do to seemingly blind you so much? I've seen his Heisman in the trophy room. It doesn't shine all that bright. I even declined the "safety sunglasses" that the security guard tried to hand me.

I've heard the same arguments time and time again. Usually it's some grumbling mixed with the words tickets, tarps, and competition. Well....

Ticket Sales & Tarps

Tim Tebow's first NFL game in Jax was with the Broncos in 2010, a game that had 63,636 tickets distributed. That year, the Jags averaged 63,032 in ticket sales across all games. When the Jets came to town this year, 67,027 tickets were sold. Though the 2012 average was 64,984, again, I'm conceding here and using the numbers of tickets sold and not an actual turnstile count. Fans on both sides (Jags fans and solely Tebow fans) don't actually go to the game for some reason or the other. Also, note that for the Bears game 67,012 tickets were sold, and for the Christmas Eve Eve Patriots game 70,251 tickets were sold.

But I'll just assume that the nearly 600 tickets in 2010 and about 2000 tickets in 2012 over the average are all as a direct result of Tebow, for argument's sake. Even if this is true, these numbers just aren't high enough to make a significant impact. 9,703 seats are currently covered by the tarps. Even taking the higher number of tickets sold from the Jets game, you would need about a 385% increase in (4.85 times as many!) Tebow fans to unite and buy tickets to get rid of the tarps. That's with every benefit of the doubt already given to you, which is far from the reality of the situation. I could also always spin the numbers the other way around like Tebowites often do and say "WE SOLD MORE TICKETS FOR THE PATS GAME" or "ONLY 15 MORE OF YOU BOUGHT TICKETS THAN FOR THE BEARS GAME" but there's several facts that prevent me from making such assumption jumps (Christmas gifts, Chicago's road travelling prowess, etc). Assumption jumps have become the name of the game though, so maybe I should.

I've tried explaining this to friends before, and I'm usually told "but it'll be different when he's in a Jags uniform." He's more than likely going to be on the bench no matter what colors he's wearing, so any impact would be short-term at best. And at least in my opinion, I don't think season ticket sales would go up all that much. Single-game sales would probably marginally rise, as Tebow fans would show up for a game or two to yell for Tim's number to be called, only to see how fruitless it is. And please don't argue that "blackouts would never happen again." They haven't in 3 years without him. Even if he was here, most of the Tebow faithful would continue to watch on TV anyway, as a rousing game of "find the hidden bible verse" just isn't the same in the stadium.

Competition

"At least bring him in there for competition."

It's a competition that you wouldn't even watch. The second Tim completes a pass and Blaine misses, the "competition" will be called over. And even if Tim looks terrible in practice I'm sure we'll hear the "he's not a great practice player" and "he's at his best in-game" excuses again. Why are you begging for competition, when you only use it as a means to get him on the team rather than actually improve the team itself? It's like there's this unspoken Tebow fan ideal that if he gets on the team, one way or another he's going to end up the starter. Honestly if anything, he'll make Gabbert look like a hall of famer.

What's the end game?

If Tim magically ends up in Jax, will billboards be bought to call for him to be the starter? And if he ends up the starter and is terrible, will more billboards go up calling for more weapons? Maybe a different offensive system? Coaches? GM? It will never be Tim's fault, no matter what happens. Most fans know not to expect a Super Bowl this year. Tebow's not going to change that, but seemingly if he makes the team and doesn't end up winning, it's everyone else's fault. I wish the same line of thinking worked in my life. "I didn't do so well on my Biology exams because the teacher is really bad, and the book is hard to read, and my seat in lecture was uncomfortable so Mr. Med School Representative please consider that I'm actually really really smart I just haven't been given the opportunity to show that."

To the White House petition guy:

Did you really think this was going to work? Stop watching your 2008 BCS Championship VHS tape and move on. Did all the articles about you make you feel special? If you were a real Jags fan, you'd realize how much of a negative spotlight you've thrown upon the organization. What part of "even if he's released" do you and your fellow Tebowites don't understand? Dave said it, then Tim got released. What do you think changed since?

To Mr. Morgan:

Business going that bad that this is how you drum up publicity? "We can't even fill an entire endzone." Really? I mean, come on! And you even dropped the "winner" word. Is that Skip Bayless remix your ringtone? For the majority of your pitch, you used college stats. Boy, if only those translated to the NFL every single time. By the way, what's a "winner?" Is it because he likes to win? And every other NFL players likes to lose? Or that he has this extreme passion and desire for winning? So is Charlie Sheen a winner, too? I hate that arguing this is really all you want, I mean you're getting free advertisement out of all this frustration. So I guess then this is only fair:

Farah & Farah > Morgan & Morgan

Farah & Farah > Morgan & Morgan

Farah & Farah > Morgan & Morgan

Farah & Farah > Morgan & Morgan

Farah & Farah > Morgan & Morgan

Farah & Farah > Morgan & Morgan

And finally, to my fellow nephews & nieces:

I know I've written over a thousands words, so thanks for reading this much. We always seem like a minority in this fight, and that's what's frustrating to me. The media won't let it go, these "fans" won't let it go, and no matter what we say Mr. New Jersey is still gonna watch that VHS tape. I'm proud to say that I'm with this team through it all, and when we hit the good years we can all look around and say a "I see you nephew" to the ones we know that stuck through this. If anything, we nephews have grown closer. So let's continue to harass each other in the comments, avoid Uncle Chap's twitpics, and RIP people's mentions from time to time. Diamond Dave and Gus have got us, EverBank will soon be filled as a result of real winning and not a short-term distraction, and we'll all be proud of the ride.