Stephen A. Smith has been very critical of Tim Tebow’s prowess as an NFL quarterback from day one, constantly repeating on ESPN’s First Take that, “the boy can’t throw”. Well, Smith hosts a show on ESPN radio in New York and had Tim Tebow on as a guest as he was on location at Jets camp. And wouldn’t you know it, he decided to tell Tebow to his face that he doesn’t think Tebow can throw.

In classic Tebow form, he was politically correct in his response. He’s a better man than me.

“Tim Tebow, I’ve been on the record,” said Smith.  ”I feel like you can’t throw the football.  I’ve said that. I’ve never said that you can’t play football.  I’ve never said you don’t belong in the NFL. I never said you don’t have that “it” factor.  I never said you don’t know how to win games.

“My criticism of you has been one thing and one thing only, your ability to throw the football.  Because I don’t have confidence in you in that regard.  To that you say what sir?”

“It’s not my place to try to debate or try to make myself look good,” replied Tebow.  ”That’s not my place at all.  I appreciate you complimenting me with saying that I have an “it” factor and can win football games. I really appreciate that.  Just as far as trying to get better and throwing the football, I’ve been working extremely hard in that.  I feel like in my career I’ve done some good things.

“Definitely some things I’ve been working on mechanic wise to get better in the NFL and improve.  you can see in certain situations I’ve done that and you can see in certain situations you can see that I’ve tried to be very careful with the football and not have a lot of turnovers.  There are some situations where I should probably forced more balls in there and other situations where I feel like I’ve done some good things.  So I’m just going to continue to get better.  But I appreciate the compliments and the rest I use as motivation.”