What is Tim Tebow’s net worth and what is the former Florida Gators’ QB’s salary at ESPN?

Tim Tebow is an enigma. He is a riddle that can only be understood in the light of early 21st century American politics.

A truly gifted quarterback at the University of Florida, he won the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore, which should have gilded his career ever afterward. Except that it didn’t.

Only three short seasons after entering the NFL, Tebow was a certified bust. A cautionary tale perhaps. But no. Tebow’s story was just beginning.

Under any normal circumstance, in any other time, Tim Tebow would simply drift out of public consciousness. The NFL drafts any number of duds in any given year, including Heisman winners. The thing about Tebow is that he was perfectly positioned to capture the zeitgeist of the early 2000s, turning football mediocrity into a household name.

Adored and despised in almost equal measure, his firm Christian stance on any number of issues, from abortion to gay rights to refusing to be named to an All-American team sponsored by Playboy has made him the darling of the right, the villain of the left.

And Tim Tebow is no idiot. He parlayed this unique cultural currency into something more concrete. Cash, and a ton of it.

As a color commentator for ESPN, Tebow is paid $4 million per year. Added to his endorsement deals, of which there are legion, and Tim Tebow has a total net worth in the ballpark of $71 million.

Yes. $71 million for a failed NFL quarterback. It is a level of insanity that says so much about the world that we live in.

Nothing against Tim Tebow, you understand. He seems like a likeable enough guy, his color commentary is no better or worse than any other on ESPN, and it would be curmudgeonly to begrudge anyone their earnings.

But it seems something of a disconnect when you think of players, much better players than Tebow in fact, who have been discarded so shamelessly.