GUEST POST: Pastor Joseph Cardile on What Might Have Been………….

Dec 30, 2012; Orchard Park, NY, USA; New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow (15) watches from the sideline in the game against the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Bills beat the Jets 28-9. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

You may be surprised that we have a Pastor writing a guest post, but once you know his background, you will think otherwise.  Joseph Cardile is a 23 yr sports broadcasting veteran, most recently the color commentator for the University of North Carolina-Wilmington basketball & baseball.  He has a different take on the 2012 seaon for the Jets.  Take a look:

The big “I.F.” That Was Tebow & the Jets 2012 Season

As Super Bowl Sunday approaches, and the New York Jets & their fans contemplating what went wrong with their 2012 season, blame continues to get slung around like David slinging stones at Goliath as to why the 2012 New York Jets season went so very wrong. The way I see it, that question can only be answered by asking another question. “What if?”

There are so many questions as to why the Jets season, that started off so promising, ended at a very disappointing 6-10 record, coaches being fired, players siding with other players, management blaming everybody but themselves, and the media and fans, by and large, somehow, are blaming quarterback Tim Tebow, and his March 21st, 2012 acquisition as the reason why things went so very wrong.

A player that from the first day was told he was going to be mostly nothing more than a backup quarterback, is being blamed for the Jets failures, that stem more from a starting quarterback in Mark Sanchez that had only one really good game all season (the first game of the season against the Bills, who he’s owned the past four seasons) and many, many bad ones. Yet somehow, the Jet media his named Tebow the scapegoat and a failure.

The reality of the Tim Tebow “experiment” or “acquisition,” is that Tim Tebow cannot be given an “F” grade, because he simply was never allowed to do what he was brought here to do. At worst, Tebow gets an “I” for incomplete, and for that matter, none of us really know what he may have been capable of because the coaching staff could never agree on a game plan on what to do with Tebow from March 21st, 2012 until the season started.

That leaves the Jets and their fans with one major question that may never be answered: “What if?” What if Tim had been given the starting role after the bye week? What if Tebow had been handed the reins and the key to Rex Ryan’s heart the way Mark Sanchez had it after the blow-out in Seattle? What if Tim was actually allowed to be Tim for a team that had been beat by 21 points or more five times? Apparently, that will never be answered while Tebow is in green and white in New York, which is too bad, because Tebow is actually the answer for the Jets. It’s because it’s in his DNA to win. And he’s done it at every level. And eventually, somewhere, he will do it again.

Tebow is a well able QB that, as evidence has shown, when he is allowed to do what Tim does best. That is, run the read option, run the football, and roll out of the pocket and pass the ball downfield, as a winning record, and a win in the playoffs against one of the top defenses in football in 2011. He is one of the hardest workers in the NFL, he can out lift the entire team, and was born with a passion and fortitude that comes around once in a lifetime. He may never be the “NFL standard” drop back passer, but what Tim does, would have been a whole lot better than what we all saw out of Mark Sanchez and Greg McElroy. Tim is the kind of quarterback that takes the whole team to another level.

Dec 30, 2012; Orchard Park, NY, USA; New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow (15) waves to fans before the game against the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

A quarterback that took the very same cast of a 1-4 team, and turned them into the AFC West Champions, and to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in over 6 years. Tim brought life back into a team that had gone 7-22 in their previous 29 games, and was listed amongst the NFL’s worst teams two and a half years running. The Broncos decided to go with the experienced Peyton Manning, and traded Tebow to the Jets, upon his request. Certainly, when Tim made the decision to come to Florham Park he never was made to fully understand Rex Ryan’s undying loyalty to Mark Sanchez, and all the Jets in the locker room that are staunch Sanchez supporters that would reject the notion that Tim Tebow could lead them to the promised land.

As things got worse and worse, the leadership team of Rex Ryan and Tony Sparano seemed to believe that Mark Sanchez continuing to lose football games was what was in the best interest of the New York Jets. Yet, despite Sanchez throw interception after interception, stumbling and fumbling all over the football field, Tebow was never once given an opportunity to shine. Yet he continues to receive and “F” grade by the predominate amount of the local & national media, other Jet players, and fans alike.

The real bottom line story of the Jets 2012 season, is that the Jets awful 6-10 season had absolutely nothing to do with Tim Tebow, because he can only do what the Jets management and coaching staff would allow him to do. Tebow was nothing more than the student, and the coaches are the teachers. And if Tebow didn’t get any better as a player, I blame that squarely on Rex Ryan and his coaching staff. It is their job to take an average player, and turn him into an above average player, an above average player, and turn him into an outstanding player. The staff didn’t (i.e. wouldn’t) work with Tim and he never got to show what he did get to show in Denver, that he is a winner, no matter how he gets it done.

No, Tebow gets an “I” for incomplete because he was never given any real opportunity to lead the 2012 Jets, even though he should have, as awful as Sanchez was, which was no fault of Tebow’s at all. It’s the coaching staff that deserves the “F” for the Jets 2012 season, for being absolutely clueless about what to do with this rising star that was gift wrapped for them on March 21st, 2012. And “I” for Tebow, and an “F” for the Coaching staff equals an “What If?” for the 2012 New York Jets. The Jets media & fans need to quit blaming an incomplete on the “student,” when he was never given enough assignments to juristic a grade by the “teachers.” The blame for the Jets 2012 failure was clearly on Rex Ryan & the staff. How Rex still has a job gives Woody Johnson an “F” as an owner as well. But don’t blame Tebow. He, quite literally, had NOTHING to do with it.