In the words of Bart Scott , I genuinely CAN’T WAIT to hear Rex Ryan explain their thinking on this one. Let the Big Apple circus commence!!!

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Before all you Jets fans out there go and purchase your new Tim Tebow jerseys, you might want to wait for the deal for the Broncos QB to actually be finalized.

(Photo: terezowens.com)

It seems that the trade between the Jets and Broncos that would send Tebow (and a 7th round pick) to New York in exchange for a 4th and 6th round pick has hit a snag.

And despite the fact that the Jets announced the deal on their Twitter page (which is still up at the time of this posting), they apparently didn’t really read Tebow’s contract before agreeing to the terms. And now they’re contesting a clause that would require NY to pay back $5 million in advance salaries from his rookie contract in Denver.

If this deal doesn’t end up going through, the Jets are going to end up looking really, really stupid.

I mean, did GM Mike Tannenbaum just get so geeked up about landing Tebow that he didn’t bother to read the fine print on the man’s contract? The Broncos – who even with Twitter-happy John Elway at the helm, have made no official announcement, by the way - feel as though the Jets need to hold up their commitment to the deal, since it’s their own fault they didn’t pay closer attention before signing off on it.

But apparently, the trade was never registered with the league, and was therefore never valid. So it’s all pretty much up in the air for now, with teams like Jacksonville re-entering the fray for Tebow’s services.

And even if the deal with the Jets does go through in the end, we have a feeling Tebowmania is not going to play very well in New York, what with the Ryan-Sanchez circus already in full effect … so this whole situation really feels like a lose-lose for the Jets.

Peyton Manning, arguably the greatest free agent of all time, has chosen the Denver Broncos as team he will ride into the Hall of Fame. The Broncos will now be the hottest team in the league this offseason, and billions of eyeballs will be glued to Mile High Manning this autumn. Elway lured Manning by promising to build players around him, and by letting him run his own offense in Denver, which should easily make the Broncos the team to beat in the AFC West. And with a 5-year, $96 million dollar contract, it seems clear that the Broncos and their team of doctors believe Manning is healthy, ready to play, and capable of making a run at the Super Bowl for the next half-decade.

(Photo: DenverPost.com)

As a lifelong Broncos fan, I can’t help but be excited about adding an all-world player to the squad. Especially a cerebral quarterback like Manning who is one of smartest to ever play the position. But immediately after the shock of the ‘Manning to Denver’ news set in, many of us in Bronco Country asked the obvious question … what about Tim Tebow? What about last season? Timmy’s magical run, winning 7 of 8 games and leading the Broncos to a thrilling OT playoff win at home against the Steelers. Tebow’s 80 yard “Tebomb” to Demaryius Thomas was by far the most exciting play by any Bronco since Elway’s “helicopter” in Super Bowl XXXII. Every single Broncos fan enjoyed that season, whether they approved of Tebow or not, and Denver seemed to be headed towards next season with notable momentum. It was truly spectacular, and many fans thought we had something special.

But now – almost unthinkably after you grasp what he did last season – the Broncos will show Tebow the door and welcome 36-year-old Manning to the team. Some Broncos fans and all of Tebow’s faithful feel betrayed, but the fact of the matter is simple: John Elway was never sold on Tim Tebow. He didn’t draft him, didn’t want him as the future of the team, and frankly, he didn’t believe in him. The ironic part for Elway was that Tebow went out last season and made A LOT of other people a believer. Not just Broncos fans, but sports fans all over the planet (as we witnessed with Tebow-mania) were hailing Tebow as the savior of the franchise. But Elway still wouldn’t publically give him the loving security fans thought he had earned. Now it makes since why Elway never backed him, because deep down he knew that Tim wasn’t his guy. He didn’t want to commit. Yet Tebow’s surprising success meant Elway was stuck with him, at least for this upcoming season, if not more if Tim kept winning. There was nothing Elway could do but wait it out and see if Tebow succeeded or failed.

Lucky for Elway, the QB Gods work in strange ways, and they sent Manning into free agency this off season… and it didn’t take long for the Broncos VP to connect the dots. Manning is only QB on the market that Elway can immediately swap for Tebow without disgruntling the Denver fanbase. This is the only logical way Elway can divorce the Broncos from Tebow in a way that looks like he’s making the right move, the smart move. He is choosing proven over potential, and you can’t really argue with that.  Tebow did wonderful things for the Broncos last year, but Elway saw a way to get rid of him without being the villain and jumped at the opportunity.

Now Broncos fans are wondering why they can’t have both – let Manning teach Tebow how to be a complete QB. It could be just like a raw Luke Skywalker receiving Jedi training from the respected Obi-Wan Kenobi. In a perfect world that would be great for all sides, but it can’t happen. Peyton doesn’t want the Tebow circus that would ensue if he was Denver’s back-up. And even though Tim wouldn’t publicly say it, he won’t wait 3-5 years to get back into the spotlight, especially after last season. He deserves a chance to start. Tebow will be traded and the Broncos will try to build their team around Manning, and I bet they do get a few interesting additions (Hello Jeff Saturday, Dallas Clark). But I also think Tebow’s “intangibles” will be missed in our locker room, and it feels bittersweet knowing we are changing our identity as a team just months after our miraculous journey into the playoffs. I’ll always respect Tebow for what he did for the Broncos last year, and honestly, I’ll root for him to succeed wherever he ends up.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how this unfolds. Will Elway be right about Tebow? Will Tebow come back to haunt the Broncos in the future? Will Manning stay healthy? Can he lead the Broncos back to the Promised Land? If a healthy Peyton Manning can’t fill the still-empty shoes John Elway left behind, then nobody can. Think of not only Manning’s legacy if he leads his 2nd franchise to a Super Bowl victory, something never been done. But also think of Elway’s, who will look like a genius for orchestrating the move to get Manning and delivering yet another title to Denver, this time without even taking a snap. He’s already a God in Denver, and that would escalate him to, well, whatever’s higher than a God. Elway knows what it takes to win at the end of a career, and that’s what Manning desperately wants to do.

Two Hall of Fame QBs in one organization… a Colt transforming into Bronco… Let’s ride!

Yup … pretty much.  Except replace “me” with “the Broncos”, since Timmy probably won’t be sticking around for whatever happens next in Denver.

(Photo: Panini America via NFL.com)

This of course means that Peyton-mania will quickly replace Tebow-mania in the Rocky Mountain state, and that John Elway has pulled off the coup of the century by figuring out the only way he could shed Tebow from his roster without sending Broncos fans everywhere into revolt.  Word on the street is that Denver will shop Tebow around for trade offers, and hope to get something fair in return from someone like Jacksonville or Miami. And while the jury is still out on the status of Manning’s neck injury, the Broncos medical staff apparently saw enough progress to make it worth the risk.

The addition of Manning immediately makes Denver Super Bowl contenders, improves their already-stellar defense, and makes the Broncos more attractive to potential free agents. And in just a year and a half as VP of football operations, Elway has managed to reverse the mess left behind by Josh McDaniels and right the ship for the Broncos franchise. It’s quite impressive, really.

And yeah, we’re guessing Demaryius Thomas is probably a pretty happy camper right now.

John Elway riding a Tebow Centaur ... what? (Image via kissingsuzykolber.com)

While the entire world seems to be gripped by Tebowmania (as evidenced by ESPN’s Tebow Hour and the latest, now-ubiquitous “Tebowie” skit by Jimmy Fallon), there are a few other quarterbacks with super bowl rings who will also be competing in the NFL’s divisional playoffs. Brady, Brees, Rodgers and Manning - you may have heard of them – will each take the field this weekend to try and lead their teams to the conference championships, despite being overshadowed in the media by their Jesus-loving Denver counterpart. And all of them are much better QBs than Tebow, by the way.

After jumping out to an early 3-1 lead with his Wild Card picks, The DarkHorse will try to keep it going for the Divisional round.  Here are this weekend’s picks from R&R HQ (CLICK TO EMBIGGEN):

So, it seems our “experts” are split down the middle on the 49ers-Saints and Packers-Giants, while Artie is the only brave soul to ride the Tebow Centaurs to the promised land over New England, and steverodgers is the only one who likes the Texans over Baltimore.

Surprisingly, all of our super bowl picks are still alive, but that’s going to change on Sunday, when either the Packers or Giants will be sent packing. As always, these picks are purely for entertainment purposes … we are mediocre at this on our good days, so feel free to share your picks and mock us in the comments.

(Photo: Hyoung Chang, DenverPost.com)

When Tim Tebow and the Broncos upset the Pittsburgh Steelers in their wild card playoff match-up last Sunday, most people theorized that divine intervention had a something to do with it. But true football fans understood that it was actually the arrogance of coordinator Dick LeBeau and the Steelers defense – who stacked the box all day and challenged Denver to throw the ball downfield – that allowed Tebow to pass for 316 yards and 2 TDs (including 204 yards to Demaryius Thomas), and knock the defending AFC champs off their throne.

As usual, the NFL Films crew was on hand in Denver to capturing all the sights and sounds from the game for their super-awesome SoundFX program. For this contest, they had Ben Roethlisberger and Elvis Dumervil mic’d up, along with countless parabolic mics roaming the sideline to pick up all the extra-curriculars. So enjoy as we get to watch the action unfold through the eyes of the players and coaches on the field, in what will already go down as a game for the ages:

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in what will already go down as game for the ages,

So, without further adieu, here are the best Tebow GIFs from the Broncos playoff victory over the Steelers … enjoy!

• Timmy is FIRED UP!

(Image via mocksession.com)

• TIMMY SMASH!

(Image via SBNation.com)

• John Elway has seen the light!

(Image via mocksession.com)

MORE GIFs AFTER THE JUMP

• Tebow Tebows after Tebowing the Tebows to Tebowry

(Image via jullie-anne.tumblr.com)

• Elway Passes the Torch

(Image via jullie-anne.tumblr.com)

• And finally, the CBS’s NFL Today crew take the Tebow post after being converted into believers:

(Image via reddit.com/r/nfl)

Who's got two thumbs and is more popular than Jesus? THIS GUY! (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images via Yahoo.com)

Pretty much every “expert” in the media had written off Tim Tebow and the Broncos heading into this weekend’s Wild Card match-up against the the heavily favored Steelers. And for good reason. The magic seemed to have run out for Tebow and Denver, having lost their last three games in ugly fashion and backed their way into the playoffs, with Tebow’s fabled mystique noticeably deteriorating toward the end of the season.

Today, in an ironic role reversal, Tebow and the Broncos found themselves ahead early and having to fight off a furious comeback attempt by Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers. Tebow threw for one 2nd quarter score on a 30 yard bullet to Eddie Royal and ran for another to give Denver a 20-6 halftime lead. But Roethlisberger rallied Pittsburgh in the second half, tying the game on a 31-yard strike to Jericho Cotchery with just under 4 minutes remaining and sending things to overtime.

Then came “Tebow Time”: with the Broncos’ season on the line, Timmy did what he does best and came up with a huge play when it mattered most. On the very first play of overtime, Tebow hit Demaryius Thomas in stride at the 40 yard line for an 80-yard walk-off touchdown, giving Denver a stunning 29-23 victory:

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Tebow finished with over 300 yards passing on the day including an astounding 204 yards on four completions to Demaryius Thomas. Check out more of Tebow’s highlights HERE.

According to the NFL’s new playoff overtime rules, the team who wins the coin toss and gets the ball first needs a touchdown to win the game outright … otherwise, the other team gets a possession to try and tie or win the game. But Thomas made sure the new rules didn’t come into play today. In looking at the replay, Steelers S Ryan Mundy got caught out of position before the snap, so when Thomas caught the pass at the 40-yard line and stiff-armed his defender, there was nothing between him and the endzone but green grass.

And of course, immediately following the score, Tebow fell to the grass to give thanks to the man upstairs, taking his classic pose:

(Image via instntrply.com)

It’s a great win for Tebow and the Broncos, who will travel to New England to take on Belichick, Brady and the Patriots next weekend … so Tebow will continue to need all the help he can get.

(Photo: WashingtonPost.com)

As the Tim Tebow phenomenon continues to grow to the point of nearly taking over all league-wide discussion, it should come as no surprise that the NFL Films crew had the Broncos QB mic’d up for his Week 14 match-up against the Chicago Bears, as part of their Sound FX series. In it, we get a little more insight into the way Denver’s savior plays the game, what he says to his teammates to motivate them on the field, as well as Tebow’s most personal conversations with the man upstairs.

Particularly interesting is hearing Tebow try to keep WR Demaryius Thomas’s head in the game after dropping a sure third quarter touchdown, presciently telling him, “You’re good. Hey, no big deal, it just makes it closer for a little bit longer. You’re about to catch the game-winner, and then you’ll be the hero of the game.” (well, technically it wasn’t the game-winner, but still).

Then, following his own 4th quarter fumble (which seemingly sealed their fate with just 5:41 remaining), Tebow comforts Broncos’ QB coach Andrew Case, who asks, “Why do we always gotta do this?”. Cool as a cucumber, Tebow just smiles, put his hand around Gase’s shoulder and says: “It’s all right. We’ll figure it out, man.” 

And figure it out he did, rallying to tie the game and take it to overtime, with a little help from Marion Barber along the way. But to no surprise, Tebow appears to be most relaxed when the game around him is at its most tense. Following Barber’s OT fumble, Tebow silently rises off the bench, points toward the sky as he takes the field, and launches into song with a quiet hymnal before calmly leading Denver to the game-winning score.

Regardless of your feelings about his faith or throwing abilities, you can’t deny that we are witnessing something special in Tebow right now. And as long as he keeps winning, he’s going to continue to make believers out of his teammates, opponents and even his harshest critics.

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UPDATE: According to PFT, one of the moments left on the cutting room floor of this Sound FX episode may have been the most interesting of the game. While they show Tebow being overly-friendly to his Bears opponents like Julius Peppers, Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher in this clip, apparently he wasn’t as congenial with CB Charles Tillman after his acrobatic interception:

… the audio from Tebow that aired this week included Tebow approaching Tillman and telling him, “You’re lucky. You’re lucky to get one.”

Tillman turned toward Tebow and asked, “What did you say?”

“I said you’re lucky, man,” Tebow said. “Lucky, lucky. You know that, too, man.”

This is certainly a far cry from Tebow’s post-game comments, where he praised Tillman for making a great play. and would be wildly out of character coming from someone whose worst trash talk has consisted of saying, “Bless you” to his opponents. But if Tebow did get caught up in the heat of the moment after throwing a pick, at least it would show a slightly more human side to the guy.

(Image via mocksession.com)

Yep, it happened again. After 3-3/4 quarter of some of the worst football you’ll ever see, Tim Tebow and his Broncos somehow pulled out another improbable victory with their 13-10 OT win over the Bears.  

And now, after leading the Denver Broncos to their their sixth straight victory (seventh in eight starts), Tebow has officially made believers out of me, his teammates, the city of Denver, John Fox, John Elway, Marion Barber and Bears fans everywhere. While some credit certainly needs to be given to the Broncos defense and Matt Prater for the win, all anyone can talk about today is Tebow.

The naysayers will continue to claim that Tebow didn’t do anything particularly special himself yesterday (despite throwing for 236 yards and a TD), and Brian Urlacher went so far as to call Tebow “a good running back”.  But there is just something remarkable about the attitude that he brings to the field, where his teammates all fight until the final whistle, and never stop believing. And after witnessing it in person, I can tell you that it’s a feeling that permeates throughout the entire stadium, with fans understanding that with Tebow on their side, they’re never completely out of any game until it’s truly over.

Plus, the very idea that Marion Barber would inexplicably run out of bounds to stop the clock in the 4th quarter, and then fumble the ball in OT – allowing the Broncos a chance at the win – smacks of divine intervention. Believers will tell you that Jesus himself pushed Barber out of bounds on that play. But regardless of whether you believe God actually has a hand in wins and losses on a football field (we don’t), it’s becoming obvious that someone upstairs has Timmy’s back right now. And the faith he’s instilled in this Broncos team since taking over is nothing short of amazing to watch.

There will undoubtedly be tons of over-analysis this week as to the religious implications of Tebow’s success, and what it means for the NFL in general, but the bottom line for us is that all the guy does is win … as the following clip succinctly demonstrates:

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