When it comes to talking about athletes in other sports besides the NFL, the position that comes to mind that people can transition to is playing tight end. While some players such as Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, and Jimmy Graham were successful going from college basketball to the NFL, it is not easy and it does offend some of the those that have dedicated their lives to being the best at the position.
On Monday’s episode of Pardon My Take, former NFL tight end and FOX analyst Greg Olsen and 49ers tight end George Kittle were guests to promote “Tight End University”. It is a camp down in Nashville taking place this week where the best tight ends in the league are able to learn from each other.
One of the topics that came up on the show was Tim Tebow trying to play tight end in Jacksonville this year. Olsen mentioned that it isn’t uncommon for teams to try players from other sports out at tight end, and he was not shy with how he felt about it.
“Here’s what used to piss me off as a tight end in the NFL. There’s one position in the NFL that gets all the I never played the position or even played the sport of football before,” Olsen said. “All these guys that never played tight end, yet alone football and then when they want to make the transition to try in the NFL, they are like ‘yeah, let’s just make that guy a tight end’. I always used to take offense to that. Every minicamp, every training camp, we’d have random guys on our team who never played football. I was like why was the point guard from Auburn was never made a safety? I’d be like, you guys have no idea how hard this shit is.”
Tim Tebow was not invited to “Tight End University” this year, despite being one of the most talked about players in any training camp. He is one of those guys Olsen was complaining about. Kittle said it was tough to invite Tebow due to the lack of finances, as he and Olsen are covering all of the costs for this year.
“Nothing against Tim Tebow, but I found it hard for me not to invite a backup tight end on let’s say the New York Giants as opposed to invite a guy who just started playing the position. We do have limited spots,” said Kittle.
Greg Olsen said that just because Tebow isn’t at the event this year does not mean the former Heisman Trophy winner would never be welcome.
“If he’s on a roster this year and he plays tight end, we would love to have him, we would love to work with him. Once he’s officially a tight end, we would love to work with him.”
