For a guy who puts so much showmanship into his Christianity, I would expect that he would be familiar with the story (not a parable, a real story that really happened) of Jesus and the Centurion.
If he recognizes his position as a man under authority, if the coach calls him in and says "We want to take a look at you at TE", isn't the right answer "I'll do whatever it takes to help the team win", even if he has to ask for a day or so to think it over?
As for his throwing motion, it's not my place to say. I'm not a football player, just a fan.
BTW, if you'll indulge me, we had a situation at my school a few years ago that might shed some light on this deal.
A certain player was starting at QB, following a departed Heisman trophy winner. (Not our most recent one.) He was a competent QB, but a younger kid, kind of a hotshot, had come in and in fact beat him out of the starting job.
The older player didn't like it, but for the good of the team switched to wide receiver...
As it turned out, the younger player had his good points, but he also had a bad side... the last straw was when he got kicked off the team for accepting cash for work he didn't really do at a local car dealership. There had also been some attrition at QB, with another guy who would have been next in line transferring to a school out west.
So two weeks out from the 2008 season, our team had no starting QB and only a couple of young guys at that position.
Coaches call in the older guy who had moved to WR the previous year and said "we need you at QB." He said "I need a day to think about it", then the next day went to the coaches and said "I'm your man." That player's name was Paul Thompson.
Our team won the conference championship with him at QB, and as a matter of fact went to the BCS championship game, where, to tell the truth about it, we were beaten by the University of Florida, who had a young man with jets named Percy Harvin on offense, a defense with team speed like we hadn't ever seen before, and Tim Tebow at QB.
So I have seen it happen before, and seen a guy make the best out of a position change and seen it work out the best for him.
The only way a guy doesn't accept that offer is if his pride has overtaken his committment to his team and the coaches who are in authority over him. 'Specially if there's NFL money involved.
JMO. :)
Tebow had a bad initial reaction to the announcement that McElroy would get that one start in place of Sanchez, but if I remember correctly he he did apologize and offer to do whatever was needed.
In the offseason, the pros and college are two different things. The college guy you mentioned probably had three options: 1. Accept. 2. Decline and stay at the school, likely spending his last year of elligibility on the bench. 3. Decline and transfer, which would likely mean sitting out a year before he could play again. If I read correctly, he was also going back to his old position, not switching to a completely new position.
I don’t know the details of what the Jets offered Tebow this off season. If your boss said you weren’t a very good computer programmer but we sure could use another office secretary (with the corresponding pay cut) wouldn’t you at least weight your options first? If that same boss had already given you reason to distrust him, or at least reason to belieeve that organization wasn’t a very good fit, wouldn’t you probably say “Thanks, but I’ll look elsewhere”?