Throwback Thursday: Steelers owned by Tim Tebow in Wild Card game
By Mike Morris
Tim Tebow owned the Steelers in the 2011-2012 Wild Card Game. Here’s what the former quarterback is up to on this Throwback Thursday.
There was once a day when Tim Tebow destroyed the dreams of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Today, he plies his trade in baseball, having accepted an invitation to represent the Philippines, his country of birth, in the World Baseball Classic before the COVID-19 pandemic postponed those plans. He’s also recently been lambasted in a new book.
But for a few years in the late 2000s and early 2010s, he was a national champion with the Florida Gators, a Heisman Trophy winner, a hero to many for wearing his faith on his sleeve, and a bonafide NFL quarterback.
His encounter with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2011-12 Wild Card round, however, leaves fans of the black and gold with a less rosy memory of the man who made “Tebowing” football’s hottest craze.
The Steelers traveled to Denver on January 8, 2012, to take on Tebow and the Broncos on the opening weekend of the playoffs. The game was notably field goal-heavy, with Pittsburgh’s Shaun Suisham and Denver’s Matt Prater both going 3/3 in the thin mountain air.
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Nobody remembers the one-yard rush from Mike Wallace or the 31-yard connection between Ben Roethlisberger and Jerricho Cotchery that helped the Steelers knot the score at 23, forcing overtime. They only remember the moment of truth.
Despite completing fewer than half of his passes (10/21), Tebow ended up with 316 yards and a game-winner. Roethlisberger passed for 289 yards, completing 22 of 40.
James Farrior seemed blindsided in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
"“We felt we had a good grasp of what they would try to do to us. They made more plays than we thought they were capable of making. We really hadn’t seen that out of him on tape.”"
Hines Ward echoed Farrior:
"“Stunned, yeah. Shocking! I would never have thought one play would go all the way down field for a touchdown in overtime… We look up and the guy is running downfield for a touchdown.”"
Roethlisberger and the Steelers would have the last laugh, as Tebow washed out of the NFL after a season with the Jets and brief offseason stints with the Patriots and Eagles.
Next. Roethlisberger shakes off the rust for a big win. dark
The Steelers face the Broncos at home this Sunday at 1:00 Eastern, riding high off their opening win over the New York Giants on Monday Night Football. The Broncos come off a 16-14 loss to the Tennessee Titans in the MNF nightcap.