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Despite some lame attempts at misdirection, the marriage of Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford and the St. Louis Rams in the 2010 NFL Draft was never really in doubt. Florida quarterback Tim Tebow was never in consideration for the Rams at that time, but he was the subject of some conversation at Rams Park.
Flash back to the spring of 2010. Lady GaGa thrust herself into the world's ears, the Winter Olympics filled up NBC prime time and NFL draft watchers debated the professional future self-righteous kid from Florida. At the same time, Shahid Khan entered the fray to purchase the St. Louis Rams, a move that granted him insider access to the team's front offices and draft preparations.
He was also talking to former Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver about Tebow. Khan revealed in a recent interview that he encouraged Weaver to draft Tebow, citing the impact on the market there and a "once a generation" athlete. Weaver walked Khan through the logic of not picking the Chosen One.
Khan went to the Rams people for a second opinion, not realizing then that asking the Rams front office for draft advice was akin to asking Dr. Kevorkian about tips for enjoying old age. Here's Khan remembering that exchange with the Rams in an interview with the Jacksonville Daily Record:
I went back to the Rams, their player personnel folks, I said, you've got to tell me, if you were Jacksonville, would you be drafting Tim Tebow? They said absolutely not. It was like they were reading from the same script Wayne had read from.
One thing we know for sure, Tebow would have had no problems meeting Spagnuolo's "four pillars" test.