No really, Demaryius Thomas likes Tim Tebow. Sort of.
After a radio appearance on Wednesday afternoon with Atlanta’s “Two Live Stews,” Thomas spent Friday backing off remarks about Tebow, his former quarterback in Denver. On the show, Thomas called Tebow’s trade to the Jets a “business decision” and criticized the quarterback’s unorthodox style, saying of the trade, “I ain’t going to say I was sad.”
Thomas’ criticism of Tebow made national news, forcing the wide receiver to hit the airwaves again. On KFFN in Denver on Friday, Thomas tempered his original statements on Tebow.
“I’ve been hearing stuff about [how] Tebow made me and all this other stuff. When I had my interview, I wasn’t trying to go in the interview and just put Tebow down as a quarterback. I was just answering the questions, you know?” Thomas said.
“But ever since the interview, it’s just been — I’ve been getting badmouthed left and right. Like, ‘You’re not a good receiver anyway,’ and all this and that. So I’m just looking over that.”
Before Tebow, Thomas was even less of a household name than he is now.
The response from Thomas on Friday seemed half-hearted as he clearly put his foot in his mouth earlier this week. It is an odd series of statements by Thomas, who didn’t register a single catch until Week 7, which coincidentally was Tebow’s first game as a starter in Denver last season.
The second-year wide receiver had a career high 32 catches in 2011, all thrown by Tebow.
“It wasn’t no hard feelings or nothing against Tim. He’s a great player. If we had him, I’d love to have him. If we had him still, there wouldn’t be no problem me playing with him,” Thomas said.
“It’s just that we’ve got another quarterback now. I really don’t talk much about Tim no more, since he’s not here with us.”
Perhaps the unwarranted criticism from a no-name like Thomas is good practice for what Tebow could encounter in the Jets locker room.
Last year, quarterback Mark Sanchez received criticism from wide receiver Santonio Holmes after posting a career high 26 touchdown passes and completing 56.7 percent of his passes. Tebow’s 46.5 completion percentage and just 12 passing touchdowns last season surely won’t have the egomaniac Holmes cracking open a bottle of Cristal to toast those numbers.
Follow Jets beat writer Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer.
