INDIANAPOLIS – The circus was in town on Friday. It was a one-ring affair, and wearing a red QB19 scouting combine shirt.
Welcome to the microscope that Tim Tebow has been living under since the Senior Bowl last month. The former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from Florida has been traveling with an unwanted entourage and dealing with an avalanche of questions about his future:
Can he play the position at the next level? Is there too much motion in his passing motion? Will he be able to run in the NFL that way he did for the Gators? Is any team going to be willing to spend a high draft choice on him?
One more question: So why was Tebow smiling when he stepped to the podium?
Smiling? It was almost like he was getting the last laugh as he looked out at the largest media contingent to gather for one player in the first two days of the event. He reached out to take reporters’ tape recorders and place them on the podium. When someone jokingly asked if he could also take notes for him, Tebow grabbed the guy’s notebook and scribbled his name across the top of a blank page – left-handed, of course.
What gives? Is this kid with all those questions about how good he can be in the NFL just too good to be true?
“You just have fun at life,” Tebow said, smiling. “Everything you do, just try to enjoy it and have a smile on your face so you can go through the process and enjoy it.
“I’ve gotten that advice from a lot of people: Don’t just look forward to getting somewhere at the end of the journey, but enjoy the journey, enjoy the process because you’re only going to get to do it once. So I’m doing that.”
And when everything you’re doing is being overly scrutinized, and every smile is greeted with a gaggle of cameras?
“It’s OK. It’s been great,” Tebow said, after laughing at the question. “Just handle everything as best I can.”
Diplomatic. Undaunted. But also dogged. That’s become the impossible-to-escape sideshow to Tebow’s storybook life.
“I do feel for him, in that I think we’ve got a little over-analyzation here,” said Charley Casserly, a former NFL general manager who now works for the NFL Network.
“It’s easy to say it comes with the situation, but he didn’t bring this on himself. I think that there’s far too much of it, to be honest with you.”
So far, Tebow has been able to shrug off the criticism and forge on.
“The scrutiny is just something you’ve got to get used to,” he said. “For me, it’s just a little bit more motivation added on the top. For that many people just to take an interest, it’s a blessing because that means they at least care what you’re doing.
“It’s just something that I’m dealing with and excited about the challenge and the opportunity, and I count as a blessing.”
Slip on the rose-colored glasses and pass the half-full glass.
But the double-edged bottom line remains the same: Can Tebow play quarterback in the NFL? And if he can, how long will it take for him to develop into that role?
“Along the way – from Pop Warner, to high school, to college – there have been a lot of times I’ve had to overcome things,” he said. “That’s one of the great parts of sports is, overcoming obstacles and barriers and hurdles along the way. In high school, they said I couldn’t be a quarterback and I’ve come along ways since then.
“I want to be a quarterback in the NFL. It’s my dream since I was 6 years old. So I’m going to do whatever it takes to do that.”
Mike Holmgren knows a little about the position, and the skills it takes to play it in the NFL. The Seahawks’ former coach and current president of the Cleveland Browns worked with Hall of Fame QBs Joe Montana and Steve Young as an assistant coach with the San Francisco 49ers and developed Brett Favre and 
“First of all, I think he’s a wonderful young man and a great football player,” Holmgren said when asked about Tebow. “The question that you have to answer, that any organization has to answer, is: Does his greatness in college translate into great in our game.
“It is quite different for quarterbacks. The thing that we are looking at right now is that he played in a system – the offense – that is somewhat unique, that used to be somewhat unique. Now a lot of people are running it. But it’s different than what we ask the quarterbacks in our league to do.”
Tebow is attempting to bridge the gap by working on keeping the ball higher on his drop, with the idea of developing a more compact throwing motion.
“It’s more like a tweak,” he said.
To that assessment, Holmgren offered, “His motion has been talked about a little bit. It’s always been my opinion that that’s the most difficult thing to change in any quarterback. He’s trying to change it, but it’s really hard to do – particularly in pressure situations.”
Pressure? That has become Tebow’s constant companion, and he does garner some style points for the way he has been handling the circus-like atmosphere.
“Do you want a Tim Tebow on your football team? I think absolutely – absolutely,” Holmgren said. “You need guys like that, players like that.
“I love him as a young man and as a player. It’s just how he will translate into to our league.”
