Antonio Cromartie initially did not support the Tim Tebow trade. But now that Tebow is set to officially become Cromartie's teammate with the New York Jets, the cornerback is changing his tune.
"He's going to bring another element to the Jets," Cromartie said Friday in his first comments since the trade. "He's a winner. He's a guy that never quits. If you give him a chance to win a game, he's going to go out and win it. I think that's what (general manager) Mike Tannenbaum and Rex (Ryan) saw in him." (via the New York Daily News)
Hours before the trade was agreed to in principle (for the first time), Cromartie tweeted that the Jets did not need Tebow, and that the team should be more focused on surrounding Mark Sanchez with supporting talent. But Cromartie said his tweets were not meant as an insult to Tebow.
"I don't have any regrets," Cromartie said. "I think a lot of people took what I said the wrong way. People took it as me dissing Tebow. I never dissed Tebow. I just said we don't need him on our team because Mark is our quarterback. I would never degrade an NFL player because he's in the NFL for a reason.Tebow's proven over the past couple years why he's in the NFL. I would never take a shot at any NFL player. He's been a winner all his life. He's pulled his teams out of predicaments. I'm not the kind of person that would degrade or belittle someone in the NFL."
"He's a guy that brings a different atmosphere to the locker room and the huddle," Cromartie said. "We were missing that last year - a guy that can take control and do the things that we need to. (Tannenbaum and Ryan) feel like he can come in and bring us that spark on offense when he's in certain packages."
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