Tim Tebow, who is new to the tight end position, won’t be among those NFL players attending Tight End University this week.
Tight End University is put together by San Francisco’s George Kittle, Kansas City’s Travis Kelce and former All-Pro tight end Greg Olsen, and is designed to help NFL tight ends improve their game and have an opportunity to bond during a three-game camp. It runs from Wednesday through Friday in Nashville, where Kittle and his wife live in the offseason, according to Forbes.
Kittle told ESPN there’s a good reason for Tebow, the former quarterback who signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars this offseason as a tight end, being unable to attend: there was a higher-than-expected response from other NFL tight ends to attend, and it made sense to give players who’ve played the position for years the opportunity to be there.
“If I can’t invite every tight end, how do I not invite a second- or third-string guy on a team that’s been playing tight end since he was 18 years old in high school?” Kittle said. “Nothing against Tim Tebow. I hope that he has incredible success this year. I hope he has 10 touchdowns. I hope he has a great year, but it’s hard for me to invite someone to this that just started playing the position when I can’t invite a guy that’s been playing it for eight to 10 years. That’s just hard for me.”
There will be more than 40 tight ends in attendance, Kittle said, and according to Forbes, the the list of attendees includes Kittle, Kelce and Olsen, as well as other stars at the position like Darren Waller, Zach Ertz, Kyle Rudolph, Mark Andrews and rookie Kyle Pitts out of Florida. Former Bingham High tight end Dalton Schultz, now with the Dallas Cowboys, will also be there.
“I want everyone to come because I want everyone to learn, everyone to get better,” Kittle told ESPN. “But we didn’t really plan that every single tight end would want to come. We thought we were going to get like 20, 25 guys max, and the next thing we knew we were at 45-50. Ran out of hotel rooms. Kind of ran out of space just in general.
“Hopefully in the next coming years I can make it available to every single person and then any tight end that wants to come can show up, learn, get better and just take another step forward.”
Tim Tebow the converted tight end
A little background on how Tebow moved over to the tight end position:
- The former Florida Gator was a first-round draft pick by the Denver Broncos in 2010 at quarterback, and he started 16 games over the next three seasons for both the Broncos and Jets before his first stint in the NFL ended prior to the 2015 regular season.
- He pursued a career in baseball over the next six years with the New York Mets organization before retiring from the sport early in 2021.
- Tebow signed a one-year contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars on May 20, but at a new position, tight end, and will be reunited with his college coach, first-year head coach Urban Meyer.