This is like the old line about how I can’t hear a word you’re saying because your actions are screaming way too loudly. The Jets can say anything they want about how much they love Mark Sanchez, but you know they don’t work this hard and risk looking this bad for a backup quarterback, to bring in a rock star like Tim Tebow and tell him to go wait in the wings. To sing backup or be one. 
 
 
 
 “Mark Sanchez is, has been, and will be our starting quarterback,” Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum is saying on a conference call at about 10:40 Wednesday night and then he is talking about what Tebow will do for the Jets besides be a backup to Sanchez, “other roles and packages.” 
 
 
 
 Then he said, “(Tebow, Sanchez are) both very clear on what their roles will be.” 
 
 JETS AGREE TO DEAL FOR TEBOW 
 
 
 
 It is Jets fans who are going to be a little confused about those roles the first time Sanchez doesn’t do the job next season. This isn’t about the extra money the Broncos wanted, part of the back end of their deal with Tebow, the money going on top of the two draft choices the Jets were offering. This is about the whole idea of bringing Tebow to Jersey, and treating him like the most desirable backup quarterback to ever play pro football. 
 
 
 
 It’s not as if the Jets give away the store to get Tebow here from Denver. But whatever the Jets say they are doing, or think they are doing, they have created their very own quarterback controversy. That’s unless they think that their fans won’t be chanting Tebow’s name the first time Sanchez throws a couple to the wrong team. 
 
 PHOTOS: A TIMELINE OF TIM TEBOW'S CAREER FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO GANG GREEN 
 
 People already think of the Jets as a circus because of the way their coach talks and acts and the way some of their players talk and act and some of the other players they have brought in and the way their season ended. Now they bring a brand-new circus to town. 
 
 
 
 “It’s exciting to know that we’ve solidified the (quarterback) position,” Tannenbaum said, and sounded as if he actually meant that. 
 
 NAMATH BAFFLED BY JETS TRADE FOR TEBOW 
 
 
 
 Tannenbaum and his owner and his coach thought about Peyton Manning, though it is clear now that they had no chance, none, to bring him to his brother’s stadium in New Jersey. Then they gave Sanchez more money, which reminds you of that diamond ring Kobe Bryant had to buy Mrs. Bryant when he turned out to be a much better basketball player than husband. 
 
 
 
 Now they go hard for Tebow, who owned the pro football season until the Giants took it back after 7-7, who can run like a champ but can’t throw for 50% in a passers’ league, who has a throwing motion that looks as if it were put together with Scotch tape and paper clips, but who made the playoffs last season and won one more playoff game – off the Steelers — than the Jets of Ryan and Sanchez did. 
 
 
 
 MYERS: TEBOW AND SANCHEZ CRAZY ENOUGH TO WORK, GM SAYS 
 
 
 
 Tebow also managed to beat the Jets along the way, on a night in Denver when Ryan and everybody else on the planet knew he was going to keep running the ball at the end of the game and could do nothing to stop him until he won the game. 
 
 
 
 They can talk about finding him plays and minutes in Tony Sparano’s offense, maybe using the Wildcat offense — which it turns out that they love the way Tebow loves the Lord — even though it took about 20 minutes for the rest of the league to start to make that offense look almost as obsolete as Hula Hoops. 
 
 
 
 LIKE KNICKS' LIN, TEBOW WILL IMPACT MADISON AVE. 
 
 
 
 Again, the Gang Green guys can talk and talk until they are blue in the face. Still: You don’t have to kneel and ask for heavenly inspiration to crack this case, know exactly what happens at MetLife first time things go wrong for the Jets: 
 
 
 
 The fans who see the Giants keep winning unforgettable Super Bowls will be calling for a quarterback who sometimes seems more likely to get hit by lightning than throw a spiral, asking him to come off the bench and win them a game the way he won those fourth-quarter games for the Broncos, until the Broncos fell apart at the end of the regular season the same as the Jets did, ended up with the same 8-8 record the Jets did. Tebow just won his division with his 8-8. 
 
 
 
 We know Rex thinks that he can coach anybody, except usually we’re talking about Rex’s home for wayward football players. Now let’s see what he does with one of the nicest kids to ever come into the league and a starting quarterback who’s never had a real backup looking over his shoulder in the pros. 
 
 
 
 Once again, the Jets try to own the offseason around here. Unfortunately for them, they do this after the Giants owned the postseason the way they did. They tell us a lot lately how Sanchez is their guy. But now behind their guy is this guy: Tebow. 
 
 
 
 Sometimes quarterback controversies happen, sometimes you build them from scratch. Or trade for one. The Jets make a big headline today in a big-headline week in the NFL, you bet they did, a week when Peyton went to Denver and the Saints got hit the way they did by Roger Goodell for their bounty program, the worst set of sanctions in pro sports since the Black Sox. The Jets go out and get themselves a rock-star backup who happens to be one of the most famous athletes on the planet, and tell their fans he’s going to pitch middle relief. We’ll see about that, if both these guys are still Jets by the end of their current contracts. 
 
 
 
 The circus really can be a lot of fun. You just have to make sure you don’t end up looking like clowns in the end. ||||| Photo by Marc Piscotty/Getty Images. 
 
 With the news that Tim Tebow is coming to New York, there’s a message I’d like to deliver to the young quarterback on behalf of an army of long-suffering Jets fans: We don’t want you here. Please, I’m begging you. We’ll even take Vernon Gholston back—whatever you want. Just go away. 
 
 Bill Smee Bill Smee is executive producer of Slate V. 
 
 Admittedly, it’s easy to make a case for this trade from the Jets’ perspective. Tebow could be a born-again Brad Smith, the much-loved and highly effective Wildcat quarterback whom the Jets lost to the Bills in the summer of 2011. New York’s new offensive coordinator Tony Sparano loves the Wildcat and ran it with great frequency in Miami. Send Tebow in as an occasional passing running back / running quarterback and the Jets would gain a new wrinkle to help offset the downfield passing struggles of Mark Sanchez. Plus, this is costing the Jets nothing more than a few late-round draft picks. And consider the intangibles: Tebow is great in the locker room! He’s a winner! This could be the perfect tonic for a team looking to re-calibrate after an underachieving 8-8 season. 
 
 Let me now demolish that straw man. The idea that Tebow will be limited to the Jets’ Wildcat ghetto seems preposterous given what happened during the 2011 season. Thanks to those miracle comebacks in Denver—which led the “overachieving” Broncos to an 8-8 record, the same as the “underachieving” Jets—Tebow now believes he should start in the NFL even if nine-tenths of the professional football world sees it otherwise. The under-appreciated one will exude humility at the start of the season, but imagine what will happen when Sanchez has a bad game or three. The same New York Post columnists who said early this week that the Jets should avoid Tebow like a pick in the red zone will be clamoring for the miracle worker to get his shot. That’s how it goes in New York. 
 
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 But Tebow shouldn’t get his shot. We already know that he’s worse than Mark Sanchez. As a passer, Tebow makes Sanchez look like Drew Brees, or maybe Chad Pennington. When Sanchez struggles, are Rex Ryan and Tony Sparano going to install the Tebow-led, Broncos-style offense that left Denver sputtering aimlessly in 2011? 
 
 Tebow’s arrival also has to be unnerving for Sanchez, who has seen his image transform from golden boy up-and-comer to shaky interception machine. Though Sanchez’s flagging confidence got a boost recently when the Jets signed him to a $40 million extension, trading for Tebow will put the butterflies back in his stomach. There’s a good argument that Sanchez needs to be pushed, having been backed up in recent years by the NFL’s version of petrified wood, “cagey veteran” Mark Brunell. But if you want to push him, sign a real quarterback like Kyle Orton. Bringing in Tebow is the worst of all possible worlds: It will annoy Sanchez and it won’t make the Jets any better under center. . 
 
 Now, let’s get to the intangibles. The story goes that the Jets had a divided locker room last season and that Ryan lost the team by making me-first Santonio Holmes the team captain. For the Jets to turn things around, they need to dump the bad apples and get a few “good locker room guys.” And who’s nicer than Tim Tebow? 
 
 That’s all BS, of course. The divided locker room story is the hoariest media narrative there is, a tale that crops up at the end of so many failed seasons. Team discord is always more a symptom than a cause of a losing record. A couple of weeks ago, Sanchez and Holmes reportedly had dinner and buried (the mostly media-created) hatchet. Holmes may get frustrated with his young quarterback’s tunnel vision, and he may not be a paragon of leadership, but he’s a gamer who’s been to the mountaintop—someone Jet fans loved when he carried them to multiple fourth-quarter wins in 2010. His airplane celebrations are incredibly irritating when the Jets are losing. When the team is winning, they’re spectacular monuments to the team’s wondrous success. 
 
 Now, what’s something that could really, truly divide this team? I’d nominate the acquisition of the most-polarizing athlete in professional sports. On his best days, Rex Ryan’s bluster is a useful distraction, allowing the players to drift into the shadows as their blabbermouth of a coach gets all the heat. By trading for Tebow, Ryan and general manager Mike Tannenbaum have added fix or six more rings to the media circus that’s already Barnum-and-Bailey-ing outside the Jets’ locker room. All that extra tabloid coverage will be spiffy, but if given the choice, I’d prefer five or six Super Bowl rings. 
 
 The one guy who’s making sense in this mess is Antonio Cromartie, the Jets cornerback who tweeted “We don’t need Tebow” in advance of the trade. As the wise Cromartie says, if all the team wants is a guy to run the Wildcat, then they can just hand the ball to the less famous, speedier Jeremy Kerley or Joe McKnight. ||||| Tim Tebow — one of the most extraordinary athletes ever to pass through Denver — was run out of town Wednesday. 
 
 It was all about pass and run — not about popularity, polarization, positive force and personality, faith, hope and charity, and mile-high regard. 
 
 Everybody in the world knows Timmy can run. He produced that remarkable run to the postseason for the Broncos last season. 
 
 But not everybody, especially the Broncos' brass, is certain he can pass. 
 
 Paradoxically, Tebow's final pass in Denver resulted in an 80-yard touchdown that won an overtime playoff game for the Broncos against the Steelers. After a contract snafu that held up the deal for hours Wednesday, Tebow was banished to the Jets, where he will start all over, but not start. 
 
 When Peyton Manning decided to bring his incredible talent to the Broncos, inevitably, it was one more Tebow Time — time to leave. Parting is such sweet sorrow, as Shakespeare wrote, and best for Tim and the Broncos, best for the evenly divided Tebow believers and the Tebow disbelievers. 
 
 Half the people are wringing their hands over Tebow's departure; the other half are ringing the church bells. But all the people should feel fortunate that young Tim was here for a while. He is an amazing fellow, and he did lead the Broncos back to the playoffs, and he did make it absorbing Shakespeare-like theatre. 
 
 If, after Tebow had taken over at quarterback in the second half of the Chargers game, the Broncos had wallowed in mediocrity the rest of the season and finished with a 4-12 record (again), Manning wouldn't have cared to come to this organization. If Tebow hadn't taken over, the Broncos might have ended up with a 2-14 record and been in position to draft Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III. Funny how things work out. 
 
 Tim is special. Someday Tebow will prove himself as an exceptional NFL quarterback — runner and passer — but that just won't happen with the Broncos. Someday, as I've written, Tebow, with his platform, will be much more than a football player. He could be a preacher, politician, philanthropist or philosopher. 
 
 He has remained quiet publicly the past two weeks, but someone very close to him told me that Tebow was "all right, and everything will work out the way it's supposed to." 
 
 He is unique. Ask the youngsters with debilitating illnesses who have been invited to games by Tebow. Ask the adults who have met him. Ask teammates who have played with him. Ask the kids who were throwing around a football at a playground recently when Tebow suddenly got out of a car and held an impromptu clinic. Ask his close friend Angel. 
 
 He is ubiquitous, given the Tebowing, the multitudes who have followed him and been thrilled by him, the Jack Armstrong All-American boy qualities and his appearances at Hollywood awards shows, Walmarts for signings of his best-selling autobiography and Disney World with Make-A-Wish teenagers. 
 
 In the past couple of days, the most frequent questions among Broncos fans were: 
 
 Why are the Broncos getting rid of Tebow? Because they signed Peyton Manning, and he's the only (available) quarterback that could have displaced Tebow, and Elway et al. feel they can win the Super Bowl soon with Manning, probably not with Tebow. 
 
 Why did they not keep Tebow as the backup now and the starter in the future? Because it wouldn't have worked. Tebow wouldn't get the necessary work in practices or games to help his development as a passer. Tebow's contract runs out before Manning's, so he would have left, anyway. 
 
 Why didn't the Broncos move him to another position or use him as a wildcat? Because Tebow has been told his whole life he couldn't be a quarterback, and he is determined to be a long-term starting quarterback in pro football. He wouldn't move. 
 
 Why did John Elway say Tebow would be the starter in training camp if he didn't mean it? Because Elway didn't realize then there would be a chance at Manning. The sincere intention by the Broncos was to play Tebow next season. But the only thing constant in sports is change. 
 
 Why did the Broncos think Tebow couldn't become a great passer? Because of his flawed throwing mechanics and footwork. Now the Jets, Tebow's new team, must address those — and many other — issues, including Tebowing and Tebowmania. 
 
 And never again will a young man or quarterback quite like Tim Tebow run or pass this way again. 
 
 Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com ||||| Will New York sports fans forget about Linsanity and start doing the Tebow? 
 
 The trade of Denver Broncos Quarterback Tim Tebow to the New York Jets is now official, at least according to the National Football League player’s timeline profile. 
 
 The trade was initially reported yesterday, and then the news was updated to say that the deal was on hold due to a contract snag. 
 
 Last night, the trade was back on, and Tebow’s Facebook page featured the following changes in the recent activity box: 
 
 Tim updated his current city to New York, New York; 
 
 Tim added New York Jets to his work, and 
 
 Tim likes New York Jets. 
 
 Tebow is no stranger to social media, with more than 1.7 million subscribers to his Facebook timeline profile, and the distinction of holding the record at one time for the most tweets per second related to a sporting event. 
 
 He first set that record in January, after 80-yard touchdown pass on the first play of overtime in a playoff game to eliminate the Pittsburgh Steelers. 
 
 Tebow’s tweets-per-second mark was topped the following month, during Super Bowl XLVI. 
 
 His cover photo (below) still features an action shot of him in a Broncos uniform, and in a funny side note, if you look closely at the fans at the top of the image, slightly to the left of the center, you can spot a fan wearing a Jets jersey (Number 24) and a disgusted look on his face. 
 
 The photo was likely taken during a game in Denver last November 17, when Tebow rallied the Broncos to a 17-13 victory over the Jets. Who knew? 
 
 Readers: Will Timsanity top Linsanity in New York? And which athletes‘ Facebook profiles do you subscribe to? 
 
 Special thanks to Kevin Evanetski, founder of Social Yeah, for the tip. ||||| Tim Tebow will be the newest member of the New York Jets, according to a report from ESPN's Adam Schefter. The quarterback was shipped to New York with a seventh-round pick in exchange for a fourth- and sixth-round draft choice. 
 
 Stunning. 
 
 What better city to house a complete media circus than the Big Apple? 
 
 With this news hot off the presses, or actually at the top of our Twitter timelines, let's quickly run down the winners and losers of this epic move.
– Various reactions to the trade that will send Denver quarterback Tim Tebow to the New York Jets: Joe Namath: "I thinks it stinks," the Jets legend tells USA Today. Mark Sanchez should be "pissed." Woody Paige, Denver Post: His column recaps all things Tebow, from a generous heart off the field, to Tebowing, to the mechanical flaws that might prevent him from becoming an elite passer. "And never again will a young man or quarterback quite like Tim Tebow run or pass this way again." Bill Smee, Slate: "We don’t want you here," the Jets fan writes of Tebow. Best case, he doesn't play and the trade means nothing. Worst case, he becomes the starter and sets "the franchise back five years," writes Smee. "Hey, as a Jet fan, at least I'm used to that sort of thing." Mike Lupica, Daily News: "The Jets go out and get themselves a rock-star backup who happens to be one of the most famous athletes on the planet, and tell their fans he’s going to pitch middle relief." Nope, no quarterback controversy here—not until Sanchez throws an incompletion. Tebow himself: AllFacebook notes some status changes: "Tim updated his current city to New York, New York; Tim added New York Jets to his work; and Tim likes New York Jets." Bleacher Report rounds up the winners and losers in the deal here.