According to each other’s camps, one of these guys is fragile-minded and the other is a distraction. (USATSI)
According to each other’s camps, Mark Sanchez is fragile-minded and Tim Tebow is a distraction. (USATSI)

About a week ago, Jeff Garcia -- the man who’s been tutoring Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez -- added more controversy to the never-ending cacophony surrounding Tim Tebow when Garcia said Tebow was a distraction.

"Having Tebow there [last season] just became more of a distraction, more of a circus show,” Garcia said. “Obviously, it's their decision, but from an outsider looking in, having Tebow there doesn't bring anything positive. It just brings distraction."

Well, yeah. I mean, that was pretty clear last year.

But if you thought Tebow’s camp would take that light slap across the face and then turn the other cheek, that did not happen. Witness what Steve Clarkson, a private quarterback coach who worked with Tebow for three days five weeks ago, said, via the Newark Star Ledger, calling Sanchez “fragile-minded.”

"I think [Tebow] was purposefully sent to New York [from Denver]," Clarkson said. "From the standpoint: you send him to a situation where you have instability with your coach -- you don't know if he's coming or going. You have a fragile-minded Mark Sanchez at quarterback. You stick Tim Tebow in there and you kill two birds with one stone. So if you're Denver you've got to be thinking 'We send him to New York we basically kill an opponent and at the same time Tim Tebow doesn't come back to bite us in the proverbial butt, if you will, because he's not going to make it out of there.'

"You send him to Jacksonville, all of a sudden he's got that fanbase behind him and all of a sudden he's doing what he's done all his life, that's win games. That would put a lot of ill-will toward your organization. There is a lot of politics that go on with it. I think Timmy was just unfortunate to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

A couple things:

1) This isn’t the first time somebody has criticized Sanchez’s mental state. One Jets player told CBSSports.com’s Mike Freeman last December, “I’ve never seen a guy lose his confidence to this level. It’s gone. He’s playing scared.” Plus, there have been plenty of anonymous teammates who haven’t been afraid to question Sanchez’s work ethic. Jeez, with this kind of back-biting (anonymously, mind you!), I wonder why Sanchez might not have the greatest self-confidence in the world.

2) Clarkson thinks Tebow could have turned the Jaguars into a winner? Um, my guess would be a resounding no.

Anyway, Clarkson and Tebow worked together briefly, and Clarkson said Tebow was coachable and that his throwing mechanics only had “very minor” issues.

"I think in Tim's case they walked him into New York and said we got four plays for you," Clarkson said. "You execute these four plays and that's all your going to get. Well, when you walk on the field and that's all you practice and you don't get any meaningful reps and you walk into a game and basically the defense is telling your offensive line basically where the ball is going to go, it's pretty depressing and it doesn't give you much room for hope. I would hope whoever, wherever he ends up that they give him an opportunity, and I think if they do they'll be pleasantly surprised. I think the guy still can play."

These people -- and maybe only these people -- would agree.