The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday that 165,000 new jobs had been added to the American economy in the last month. But it would have been 165,001 if Tim Tebow had been able to find work.
Some fans in Jacksonville want President Obama to do something about that.
A petition on the White House website asks the president to “Call NFL Jacksonville Jaguars GM David Caldwell and tell him to stop ignoring the Jaguars fans and sign Tim Tebow!”
“If the Jaguars sign & START Tebow,” the petition continues, “home games will be sold out, sales will spike, the team will win and the fans will be happy.”
The organizers are hoping 100,000 Americans will sign the petition, and that the president will put the full weight of the White House behind the fans in Jacksonville who want to see Tebow play in the area where he grew up, and where he became a Heisman Trophy winner and national champion for the Gators. As of Monday morning at 10:30 a.m. Eastern, 315 people had signed the petition.
Caldwell has indicated that he’s dead-set against adding Tebow, and even a presidential directive will probably not be enough to sway him. It seems that the position of “Tim Tebow, backup quarterback” may turn out to be an American job lost to Canada.
UPDATE 11:17 a.m. ET: Just minutes after we posted this item, WhiteHouse.gov took the petition down, saying it violated the site’s terms of participation. We may now have to turn our attention to petitioning the prime minister of Canada to get the Alouettes to sign Tebow.