New York Jets owner Woody Johnson spent a good portion of the 2012 season denying charges that last March's Tim Tebow trade was driven by him, in an attempt to sell PSLs for MetLife Stadium.
He has since denied one report that Tebow was "forced" on him by former general manager Mike Tannenbaum.
In a Tuesday interview with ESPNNewYork.com, Tannenbaum accepted full responsibility and confirmed that the trade was his idea. He also conceded that the Tebow experiment was an epic fiasco.
"I'm disappointed it didn't work out, just like I'm disappointed when certain draft choices don't work out," Tannenbaum said. "We put in a lot of time and effort. We had a rationale for it. At the end of the day, it didn't go as we had planned."
That seed, planted by Tannenbaum and Jets coach Rex Ryan as a means to find a Wildcat replacement for Brad Smith, never germinated. "Some moves work out, some don't," Tannenbaum explained.
That part is understandable.The head-scratcher remains Tannenbaum's failure to grasp the implications of importing the Tebow circus -- specifically its impact on the psyche of scattershot quarterback Mark Sanchez.
Therein lies the root of Tannenbaum's downfall. It wasn't a misevaluation of Tebow's talent; it was the hard-headed commitment to Sanchez as a franchise quarterback when all objectiveevidence suggested otherwise.
Follow Chris Wesseling on Twitter @ChrisWesseling.
