New York Jets coach Rex Ryan says "the media is not going to drive" how much Tim Tebow plays. The media will, however, continue to drive the 'Tebowmania' train, and will continue to ask Ryan how much he plans to use Tebow, who might be the most interesting backup quarterback in NFL history.
What will Tebow's role be? How many snaps do you expect Tebow to play? How much will you use the 'Wildcat' offense? Can Tebow and starting quarterback Mark Sanchez co-exist?
Ryan has been asked some variety of these questions almost every day since the Jets imported Tebowmania from the Denver Broncos. He admitted Wednesday that he is never going to give a straight answer to the 'how much will Tebow play?' question.
"The media is not going to drive it. The opponent, they're not going to have any idea what we're going to do with them and I'm certainly not going to let them know, ‘By the way, Tebow is going to have 50 snaps today.' Let (them prepare). I'm never going to give a legitimate answer. I think I know the answer, but I'm not going to give it to them," Ryan said. "I think it plays into our best interests that our opponents don't know how many (Wildcat plays we are going to run). Is it going to be a big feature? Is the Wildcat going to be very featured this week or is it going to be more back-burnered. I think that plays into our advantage."
Ryan may or may not be trying to kill Tebowmania. Don't expect this little cat-and-mouse game with the media to disappear anytime soon. This is what the Jets signed up for, whether they fully understood it or not.
When Tebow plays a lot there will be questions about whether or not he will take Mark Sanchez' job, or how Sanchez is handling it. When Tebow doesn't play much, like last Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers when he got only three offensive snaps, Ryan will be asked why. Each week he will likely be asked what the Tebow Plan for the upcoming game is.
Each week Ryan will give some variety of the answer he gave Wednesday about the Tebow Plan for Sunday's game against the Miami Dolphins.
"I'm not really sure (if Tebow will play more). There could be more opportunities down the road. There could be less, but that's it. I'm happy he's here. I can tell you that much," ryan said. "As we've said from day one, this guy is a good football player. We're not going to say he has to get "x" amount of snaps. That's not what we do. Just like with Joe McKnight (who) only had the one snap, will he play a bigger role this week? Probably, but again, things go into it, matchups are a consideration (and) a lot of different things go into things."
Translation: Ryan is telling the media they can go ahead and keep asking -- and he might even enjoy the fact that the question is always there -- but he is going to continue to answer by not really answering.
That is how the Tebowmania Game is is apparently played.