Report: Russian Team Wants Tebow — For A Crazy Amount Of Money
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Trying to figure out where Tim Tebow will end up is becoming sort of an obsession for many people -- and not just his legion of loyalists.
But it's hard to image this destination.
Russia.
Yes, that Russia.
According to CBSSports.com, there's an owner of a Russian football team who wants Tebow desperately. How desperately? Try a reported $1 million for just two games.
Apparently, the owner of the Moscow Black Storm, a man named Mikhail Zaltsman, told a sports publication in Russia that he spoke to the former Denver Bronco, New York Jet and New England Patriot personally and "he wanted to go," presumably, overseas to play American football in the land of ice hockey and vodka, CBSSports.com reported.
However, Dmitry Popkov, the president of the Moscow Black Storm, later told a leading Russian wire service that the team is "not 100 percent sure whether Tim (will) visit Russia. Negotiations are still under way. First we offered him a certain amount, then this amount increased. It will be clear after Sept. 20 whether Tebow will come here. Our owner is in talks with managers and agents of this player. The funds have already been transferred -- the ball is in Tim Tebow's court now."
Did you get all that? A Russian football team nobody has ever heard of is reportedly in negotiations to bring the most polarizing athlete in all of American sports to its league on a quest to win the American Football Championship of Russia.
You can't make it up.
"He's a real sports star, surrounded by a crowd of agents, that's why negotiations were difficult," Popkov explained to the wire service, ITAR-TASS. "Tebow himself, after finding out that people play American football in Russia, was surprised and wanted to see it for himself, to play with Russian players. And then again, an extra million dollars won't harm him. As far as popularizing American football in Russia, he doesn't really care about it. It's interest."
There's been no word from the Tebow camp, but if he is indeed interested in playing football in Russia we'll likely know soon, considering the league's championship game is on Sept. 28, CBSSports.com reported.
Tebow has been looking for work in the NFL since being cut by New England on Aug. 31.
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