(Getty Images)

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — It was December 2005 and Tim Tebow was a high school senior taking his official visit at USC. Home schooled, Tebow still was able to showcase his ability for Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., and became one of the best quarterback recruits in the nation. Offers poured in from the nation's top programs and the young Tebow took official visits to the Trojans along with Alabama, LSU, Michigan and Florida, his eventual choice.

But on that trip to Los Angeles, the player charged with giving Tebow a feel for the campus that weekend was none other than Mark Sanchez. And now it will be one of these two quarterbacks under the center for the New York Jets this season as a trade last week reunited Sanchez and Tebow.

"I did host him at USC," Sanchez said in a Monday afternoon conference call with the New York media. "He's still the same guy."

Now entering his fourth year with the Jets, Sanchez remembers laughing and joking around with Tebow on the official visit. They lost contact after their initial meeting although both players admit to admiring the other one's collegiate career. But a couple years ago, they connected again at a Super Bowl fan event and then later at a Q&A forum with fans.

Tebow gushed over Sanchez in his press conference, Sanchez did the same during his conference call, and the odd couple of the NFL is set to begin a strange odyssey.

A pocket passer, Sanchez is known for his strong arm and is a typical pro-style quarterback. On the other hand, Tebow runs out of the option and rarely completes over 50 percent of his passes. Sanchez loves going out on the town and has been romantically linked to everyone from Jamie-Lynn Sigler to model Kate Upton. An evangelical Christian, Tebow said he is saving his virginity for marriage.

Despite the differences, it was Sanchez who reached out with a phone call to Tebow, again being the gracious host after the trade. This time, though, he was welcoming Tebow to his team and not trying to recruit him. Their styles on the field and lifestyles might be different, but both talk nonstop about wanting to win.

Related NFL video on Yahoo! Sports:

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — And now, the New York Jets are left with a mess.

With their Monday afternoon introduction of Tim Tebow, the Jets now have a quarterback controversy on their hands just two weeks after giving incumbent starter Mark Sanchez a five-year contract extension which included over $24 million in guaranteed money. Last Wednesday night after reaching a deal with the Denver Broncos to acquire Tebow, Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum said that his newest acquisition was coming in to be the team's backup quarterback.

"Mark Sanchez is, has been and will be our starting quarterback," Tannenbaum said. "We're adding Tim to be our backup quarterback and to play in roles and packages as coach [Rex] Ryan and [offensive coordinator Tony] Sparano see fit. Tim is comfortable with that."

But not so fast -- someone didn't tell that to Tebow.

While Tebow spoke about his friendship with Sanchez and said that "working together we'll be able to encourage one another and be stronger together than we would be apart," it was clear that he won't be content carrying a clipboard on the sidelines. Tebow was clear that he wants to be a good teammate and support Sanchez, whom he has been friends with for several years, but he also wants to be more than just an understudy.

"I haven't had time to spend with coach Ryan and I think a lot of it has to do with how well it works, how it does in practice. Obviously you're not going to put something out there that's not executing, not running well so I think it really matters how well we do," Tebow said.

When the Mark Sanchez replicas go for half off, you'll know something's up. (AP)

Quarterbacks Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow

It was a move, says Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath, which the New York Jets pulled off to provide salvation for their team. It just so happens to be in the form of tickets and jersey sales and not the blessing of wins and championships.

The Jets' shocking Thursday trade with the Denver Broncos to acquire Tim Tebow not only brings quarterback controversy to New York but also legions of Tebow fans and media scrutiny. The Jets, who haven't won a title since Namath led the team to an upset victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, are clearly making a move to not only enhance their on-the-field product but also make an impact off of it as well. In the same town as the Super Bowl-winning New York Giants, the Jets needed to make this move to recapture the city's attention.

"This goes beyond X's and O's and football. The Jets have a way of maintaining a high profile and this is another way again that they're doing that," Namath told Yahoo! Sports.

[ Dan Wetzel: Jets' gamble on

(Getty Images)

It is certainly the beginning of  "Tebowmania" in New York, but does that spell the end of the "Sanchise"?

Late on Wednesday night, the New York Jets announced for the second time in the day that they had acquired quarterback Tim Tebow from the Denver Broncos. The deal, which was originally held up due to a roster bonus issue, brings to New York a quarterback who is the ideal fit for the Wildcat package that offensive coordinator Tony Sparano utilized in Miami with the Miami Dolphins as their head coach in 2008.

It also brings other issues, such as what now to do with incumbent starter Mark Sanchez, who recently signed a five-year contract extension with the Jets. Tebow comes to the team after starting 11 games in Denver last year and leading the surprising Broncos to a division title and a wild-card playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. While he is far from an ideal starting quarterback in a traditional sense, Tebow does win and that's something that the Jets with their 8-8 record last season struggled with, in large part due to Sanchez's sporadic play.

"Mark Sanchez is, has been and will be our starting quarterback," Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum said on Wednesday night during a conference call with the New York media.

"We're adding Tim to be our backup quarterback and to play in roles and packages as coach Ryan and coach Sparano see fit. Tim is comfortable with that."

Talking with the experts.

Through the NFL Draft, Shutdown Corner's Kristian Dyer will be training at TEST Football Academy Powered by Parisi Speed School in New Jersey along with roughly 20 players. All of these athletes are prepping for the NFL Combine, different pro days and of course, the NFL Draft in April. A former college soccer player, Kristian was a playground legend at quarterback back in middle school but never played a down of organized football. He will be blogging about the life of training for the NFL Draft and a career in the league as he lives it firsthand.

MORRIS PLAINS, N.J. — A week before, I had just been tested after a little more than a month of training with the two dozen combine athletes at TEST Sports Clubs. My sprint times were down, my vertical increased and I had lost weight while adding strength. But let's be honest, I wasn't a professional athlete — I just cover them for a living.

So to get thrown into the mix with a bunch of early 20 something athletes all in prime shape coming off their senior seasons of college football isn't easy.

That's where Terrence Fabor comes into the picture.

Fabor played linebacker in college at William Paterson University and is now the Director of Training at Parisi Speed Schools. Fabor has trained Olympic and World Cup athletes at Parisi, which has now partnered with TEST Sports Clubs in training NFL combine athletes.

The thing about Fabor is that he doesn't smile, he just sort of looks at the athletes he's training, absorbing everything and taking mental notes. It had me sweating even before I began my stretching.

His job was simple: To give me a crash course on how to better utilize my muscles.

So I started with simple things, such as jumping jacks and some sort of crouching walk called "the caterpillar." Every exercise Tabor just watched, walking around me with his arms behind his back. What he could get from jumping jacks was beyond me. I was beginning to think this was stupid and looking for the exit.

He didn't smile, he didn't frown. Fabor just kept watching.

For some reason the uncertainty made me sweat more.

"One of the biggest issues I want to address is a lack of range of motion in your hips, which I noticed during our Active Dynamic Warm-up (ADW)," Fabor calmly explained to me.

"It also allows me to assess your largest areas of need, such as range of motion through your hips.  By focusing on the little things and paying attention to detail, our athletes are better educated about their strengths and weaknesses and are able to achieve better results."

We did some basic exercises including lunges and a leg press using one leg to isolate the muscles and work on explosiveness. Then came squats, probably one of my favorite exercises dating back to my days of college soccer.

But rather than just load up the plates and squat, we started really light with just 10 pound plates on either side of the bar. Fabor messed with my feet, my hips, the pressure I put on my heels and even had me squeeze my shoulder blades together. Everything was weird and different as I went through my reps.

Again, I look for the exits, but Fabor had a plan.

Joe Namath knows what it's like to go to that second team. (AP)

All but one season of Joe Namath's 13-year NFL career was spent with the New York Jets, so the Hall of Fame quarterback knows a little bit about what Peyton Manning is going through right now. Manning, who missed the entire 2011 season following multiple neck surgeries, was released from the Indianapolis Colts on Wednesday, drawing a close to a legacy that turned around the downtrodden franchise.

Much like Namath, who left the Jets in 1977 to play one season with the Los Angeles Rams, Manning is now looking for his first team since being drafted by the Colts 14 years ago.

[ Related: Sources: Peyton Manning making progress with arm strength ]

"I made that move after 12 years and it was very difficult. So much newness involved and I made the move because I wanted to play," Namath told Yahoo! Sports.

"The move was made because the Rams' coach was Chuck Knox and I had a relationship with him, one dating back to high school, actually. I thought I was sound enough to play and the Jets were

With Peyton out of the picture, the Jets decided to re-Sanchize. (AP)

The mess that is the New York Jets is either one step closer to being cleaned up or getting a whole lot more tangled. On Friday night, the Jets announced a three-year contract extension with quarterback Mark Sanchez, waving a white flag in their pursuit of Peyton Manning on the free-agent market.

The long-term deal for Sanchez, who led the Jets to two AFC championship games in his first two NFL seasons, comes after a rocky 8-8 campaign where the young quarterback struggled. It got so bad that midway through the season, star wide receiver Santonio Holmes called Sanchez and his offensive teammates out after a lackluster offensive performance in Baltimore against the Ravens. The acrimony between the two seemed to continue as Holmes was benched in the regular-season finale after getting into an on-the-field fight with his teammates. Holmes has often been suspected as being one of the anonymous sources within the Jets' locker room who has been speaking of dissension in the ranks.

Sanchez said that the air has been cleared between the two.

"We've been in contact really this whole offseason. A bigger deal was made out of that than was needed to be, but that's OK. With neither of us commenting on that it got bigger — we've kind of laughed that off at this point now, weeks ago. I've been down to see him," Sanchez said.

"We've been in contact. I know he's in Africa doing charity work now, but I know he's excited about next season."

The reports of player discontent with Sanchez began to leak out several days after the Jets season ended, with the anonymous source calling Sanchez "coddled" and saying that the young quarterback was "lazy." Recently, the source told the media that the Jets offense would welcome a potential Manning arrival.

Sanchez, who usually tiptoes around sticky issues, was quite clear about what he thought about those comments.

"If you're an unnamed source, you don't speak for yourself, and therefore you don't really speak for your team," Sanchez said.

(Alex Brandon/AP)

NEW YORK, N.Y. — It may not be the long-term answer for a conference that has been as hard hit as any the past decade with defections, but for the Big East, Temple is the answer to their immediate prayers.

On Wednesday, the conference announced that Temple would be joining the conference this season in football and in 2013-14 for all other sports. The school was unanimously accepted by a vote of university presidents on Wednesday morning. Bringing the Owls to the conference is of course a football move, a decision ironically announced in the midst of Wednesday's four game slate of basketball in the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.