Skip Bayless Blasts Chip Kelly For Cutting Tim Tebow [Video]

ESPN First Take co-host Skip Bayless considers Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly “a snake in the grass” for cutting quarterback Tim Tebow.

In his final NFL preseason game, comeback-minded Tebow was 11 for 17 against the New York Jets for 189 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 32 yards.

The Bayless man-crush on Tim Tebow is an ongoing source of contention between him and equally verbose counterpart Stephen A. Smith.

In this instance, Smith blew a gasket (see the video embedded below), insisting Tebow can’t throw a football at the NFL level and has an inability to read defenses. Smith declared Tebow would be better off switching to a running back position if he wants to try to make it in the league.

First Take on ESPN is now moderated by Molly Qerim, who took over when Cari Champion moved to SportsCenter, and as such, has inherited the task of navigating between the two over-the-top talkers.

The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Florida, where he won two national championships, Tim Tebow was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the first round of the NFL Draft in 2010. After two seasons there (which included a playoff victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers), Tebow was picked up by the New York Jets and languished on the bench.

The New England Patriots cut Tebow in the 2013 training camp.

Throughout his career, in games that count, left-handed quarterback Tim Tebow recorded 29 touchdowns (17 passing and 12 rushing) in three NFL seasons. He also threw nine interceptions and rushed for a total of 989 yards.

On First Take, Tebow fan Skip Bayless argued that Kelly essentially stabbed Tebow in the back, and to add insult to injury, put a QB castoff from the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars on the 53-man roster instead.

“I’m so happy now that I don’t have to root for Chip Kelly this year. Listen, Chip Kelly — what a snake in the grass he was in the end to Tim Tebow. After all the proclamations about how much he loved Tim, and this is his guy, and wants him on his football team and the ‘it factor’ and this and that and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What did Chip Kelly do after he surprised many people out there, not just me, I think most people were stunned that he whacked Tim Tebow, cut him and as Tim is walking out the back door, he kicked him in the behind by signing Stephen Morris off the waiver wire, who had just been cut by the Jacksonville Jaguars…what an insult that was to Tim Tebow…”

In his emotional rant of a response, Smith admonished Bayless for forcing him to defend Chip Kelly because the pro-Tebow monologue was “a bunch of nonsense.”

Bayless added that Tebow, 28, should seriously consider signing with a Canadian Football League team to prove himself to NFL scouts, as did quarterbacks Warren Moon and Doug Flutie back in the day.

In the meantime, Tim Tebow has returned to the broadcast booth as a college football analyst for the ESPN SEC Network.

Whether you agree with Skip Bayless that Chip Kelly mistreated Tim Tebow or not, do you think Tebow Time will ever return to the NFL?

[Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images Sport]