NEW YORK (AP) - The possibilities appeared endless for Tim Tebow.
Here he was, perhaps the most popular player in the NFL, in New York as a member of the Jets and maybe the biggest thing to hit Broadway since Joe Namath himself.
There were billboards outside the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey welcoming Tebow, and sandwiches named after him at Manhattan delis. He also had a legion of fans who followed him because of his strong Christian beliefs, and in New York, he would be able to take advantage of countless media and marketing opportunities.
And then, it all went terribly wrong.
Or, more like it, the whole idea was completely flawed from the start. For Tebow. And for the Jets.
Tebow was waived Monday morning, the end of an embarrassingly unsuccessful one-season experiment in New York that produced more hype and headlines than production on the field. And it all ended quietly, with a three-paragraph news release.
"Unfortunately," coach Rex Ryan said in a statement, "things did not work out the way we all had hoped."
It also left Tebow's football future very much in doubt.
A year after he threw a TD pass to win a playoff game in overtime for Denver, the Heisman Trophy winner with two college national titles at Florida and a nationwide following may have suited up for the last time.
No NFL team has made a pitch to get him. The only nibble so far came from the Montreal Alouettes. They hold his rights in the Canadian Football League and said he can come compete for a job - as a backup.
Even recently retired Jets special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff labeled the way the team used Tebow an "absolute mess."
It all cost Tebow his job, along with former general manager Mike Tannenbaum and former offensive coordinator Tony Sparano - both fired in part because of their roles in what was one of the NFL's messiest quarterback situations in recent memory.