Brady Quinn apologizes, claims comments on Tim Tebow were ‘inaccurate’

Quarterbacks Tim Tebow #15 and Brady Quinn #9 of the Denver Broncos take the field during warm ups before playing the New England Patriots at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on December 18, 2011 in Denver, Colorado. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

In Michael Silver’s GQ article that examined the first months of Tebowmania this morning, Brady Quinn was quoted over several different time periods.

Across those time periods and through different quotes, Quinn: conveys jealousy of Broncos fans’ support of Tebow, questions Tebow’s humility and appropriateness of his public displays of faith, and attributes the Broncos’ success to luck. It was a damning number of quotes toward Tebow, and an even more damning number of quotes for Quinn, who comes off petty, sour, and as a bad teammate and employee.

Now he’s in damage control mode, and released the following statement on Twitter:

The comments attributed to me in a recent magazine article are in NO WAY reflective of my opinion of Tim and the Broncos. Tim deserves a lot of credit for our success and I’m happy for him and what he accomplished. Most importantly, he is a great teammate. That interview was conducted three months ago, and the resulting story was a completely inaccurate portrayal of my comments. I have addressed my disappointment with the writer and have reached out to Tim to clear this up. I apologize to anyone who feels I was trying to take anything away from our Team’s or Tim’s success this season.

We’re sure Quinn’s article comments don’t accurately capture his feelings toward Tebow or the Broncos. We didn’t even hear a whisper of malcontent from Quinn to this point. But an “inaccurate portrayal of (Quinn’s) comments” are still a reflection of Quinn’s comments. Michael Silver may stir the Tebow/Broncos pot, but his words are never baseless.

Will John Elway and the Broncos look at the body of Quinn’s behavior rather than these snippets from a GQ article? It’s possible, especially since Elway and John Fox have each gotten themselves in public hot water over Tebow comments. But nothing they said were damning to this degree.

Brady Quinn, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent in a few weeks, has been in the spotlight far too long to make a mistake like this, and no amount of backtracking on Twitter is going to erase the damage done. Brady Quinn: Bronco no more.

Brady Quinn wanted a billboard too [BroncoTalk]
The Year of Magical Stinking: An Oral History of Tebow Time [GQ]