San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle and retired tight end Greg Olsen are kicking off Tight End University this week in Nashville, Tennessee. It's a gathering of some of the best tight ends in the league for a week of training, information sharing, and all-around improvement.
No, Tim Tebow will not be there. The former quarterback who converted to tight end and is working to be a part of the Jacksonville Jaguars roster was not invited.
Kittle and Olsen joined the Pardon My Take podcast, and the 49ers tight end explained why Tebow was excluded from the week-long event.
"So, nothing against Tim Tebow, but I found it hard to invite -- I wish nothing but the best for Tim Tebow, and I hope he has a fantastic season playing tight end -- but it's hard for me not to invite a backup tight end on, let's say the New York Giants, as opposed to inviting a guy who just started playing the tight end position because we do have limited spots," Kittle shared. "I wish I could make it so every NFL tight end can come, (so) it's accessible to everybody. But what we tried to do this year, we wanted to pay for everything for all the tight ends that come to kind of make it a special event for all tight ends."
There was not enough room for Tebow. His inclusion would have meant taking the spot away from another player who has been playing the position longer.
"We booked up an entire hotel," Kittle continued. "They're completely out of rooms. We have every room taken. We blocked off a certain amount of rooms, so we're completely out of rooms. We thought we were going to get like 20 guys, and the next thing I know, we have 47 confirmed as of last week, and I think we just got past 50. Just, wow, that's a lot of guys."
Kittle hopes that the event will be open to more players in future years, and the tight end hopes to extend an invitation to Tebow for next year's gathering.
Added Olsen: "If he's on a roster this year, and he plays tight end, we would love to have him, we would love to work with him. Once he's officially a tight end, we would love to work with him."
You can listen to the entire interview with Kittle and Olsen below. It begins at about the 53:50 mark.
