Today’s question about the Broncos comes from Cecil S. in Florida.
Q: Can you explain why the Dolphins would honor Tim Tebow at their own game?
A: Cecil, the Dolphins designated Sunday as a promotional event where they would honor the University of Florida team that won the national championship game in January 2009 at Sun Life Stadium — the Dolphins’ home stadium.
Tebow was the quarterback of that Gators team, which also featured Dolphins center Mike Pouncey.
The Dolphins have struggled to sell home tickets, so when another former Gators player — former Dolphins wide receiver Nat Moore, who also happens to be the Dolphins’ vice president/special advisor — suggested the ceremony, the team thought it could bring some of the Gators faithful into the seats.
The team obviously misjudged the backlash, however. When team officials announced it during the preseason, there was an immediate outcry from University of Miami fans, because the Hurricanes share Sun Life Stadium with the Dolphins.
Hurricanes fans were angered at the thought the Dolphins would honor a Florida team.
Then the Dolphins started 0-5 and are in a situation in which Sunday’s game could very well feel like a road game in what is already a fairly dismal season.
The promotion has worked on the business side, with 10,000 tickets having been sold since the Broncos formally announced Tebow as the team’s starting quarterback last week.
It will all make for an unorthodox game Sunday, the kind of convergence many in the NFL privately say they haven’t seen before. You basically have an opposing team’s player who is a bigger draw than the home team; a player who is being honored, at least in part, by the home team.
There was a small taste of this kind of thing when the Broncos opened the 2010 season in Jacksonville, Fla., which is Tebow’s hometown. The Jaguars also were struggling to sell tickets for what was not a playoff team, and Tebow was easily the most-cheered player during pre-game warm-ups, etc.
Once the game started, things were fairly normal. Tebow played three snaps in the game — he ran twice and lined up at receiver once — and got a big ovation when he was on the field.
This time, however, he is the Broncos’ starter and will be in the thick of things all afternoon.
The Dolphins have tried to explain themselves in the months since the announcement, and coach Tony Sparano made a rather timid attempt to say that Pouncey and the other former Gators players would receive equal billing.
All in all, it should make for a fairly strange scene, especially if Tebow has a big day. Tebow is not expected to participate in the ceremony itself.
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
