Brady Quinn Sounds Somewhat Bitter About Tebowmania

It's probably unfair that Brady Quinn's quotes are going to overshadow GQ's excellent oral history of a season of Tim Tebow, as told by teammates, opponents, front office men and more. But Tebow is a Broncos quarterback, and for the moment so is Quinn, and it's impossible to read some of these without picturing Quinn driving pins through a number 15 Broncos doll.

Quinn, Pre-Tebow Time: "Early in the season, there was a game when Kyle [Orton] got hurt and the coaches were calling for me to go in, but Kyle got up and finished the game out. So I was the second-string guy. Then, a few weeks later, they decided to put Tim in. I felt like the fans had a lot to do with that. Just 'cause they were chanting his name. There was a big calling for him. No, I didn't have any billboards. That would have been nice."

Quinn, Week 14, after yet another fourth quarter comeback: "We've had a lot of, I guess, luck, to put it simply.

Quinn, on Tebow's direct line to Jesus: "If you look at it as a whole, there's a lot of things that just don't seem very humble to me. When I get that opportunity, I'll continue to lead not necessarily by trying to get in front of the camera and praying but by praying with my teammates, you know?

Quinn's not necessarily wrong about anything—just remarkably honest in a way we don't expect from football players. He's going to get torn apart, and that does a disservice to the reporting by Michael Silver here. It's fascinating to see opposing defensive players insist, as if assuring themselves, that Tebow's not so great, (Terrell Suggs: "They say we were giving him a hard time because he's a Christian. No, that's not it! We were giving him a hard time because he was terrible.") and equally fascinating to see those same players come up with any number of non-Tebow reasons for why they lost to the Broncos.

The Year of Magical Stinking: An Oral History of Tebow Time [GQ]