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Tim Tebow offered contract by Italian football team

Viva Italia? Tim Tebow has another interested football suitor. (Mary Schwalm/AP) Tim Tebow has rebuffed the overtures of the L.A. Kiss arena league team, but
Doug Farrar|
Tim Tebow offered contract by Italian football team
Tim Tebow offered contract by Italian football team

Viva Italia? Tim Tebow has another interested football suitor. (Mary Schwalm/AP)

Tim Tebow has rebuffed the overtures of the L.A. Kiss arena league team, but that hasn't stopped potential suitors for stepping up with their bids. The former Florida star quarterback and one-time NFL player was recently offered a four-month contract by the Milano Seamen of the Italian federation for American football. The team, which posted an excerpt of the offer on its website, claims it will pay Tebow $200,000 for his time.

"The offer has been made to his agent and now we're waiting for a response," Seamen team president Marco Mutti said, per the Associated Press. "We would be more than happy to have him."

For those who don't remember, Tebow was selected by the Denver Broncos in the first round of the 2010 draft. The Broncos won eight of the 14 games he started, and Tebow led his team to an unexpected wild-card playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in January 2012. However, Tebow was no longer needed after Denver acquired Peyton Manning before the 2012 season, and he was traded to the New York Jets. That experiment failed, as did Tebow's stay with the Patriots, who cut him before the 2013 season started.

If Tebow takes the offer, he'd start the Italian league season in March and hope to play in the Italian Super Bowl in June. Last year, the Parma Panthers beat the Seamen in the championship, so it's easy to see why Tebow's winning ways would be so desirable.

That said ... Given that Tebow turned down Gene Simmons, we're not sure what kind of chance Mr. Mutti and his team have -- especially since Tebow appears to have other irons in the fire. In November, he hired Nick Khan, a prominent broadcast agent with CAA, to represent him. That sent out the word that he might be interested in a broadcasting career, of course -- and of course, the networks will eagerly come calling. According to Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead, Tebow could have offers from ESPN, CBS and FOX (at least) when the time is right to open for business. First, Tebow will undoubtedly want to exhaust all his potential American football opportunities -- if he already hasn't -- and that probably doesn't include the Italian version.

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Doug Farrar
DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009,  Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine.  He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.

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