Spurrier: Tebow rejected offer to restart football career in AAF

Steve Spurrier opened the door for Tim Tebow to resurrect his football career, but the New York Mets' farmhand and former NFL quarterback closed it.

Upon being named the head coach of Orlando's Alliance of American Football team in April - the league is scheduled to launch in February 2019 - Spurrier reached out to Tebow to gauge his interest in a return to the gridiron.

"He said, 'Coach, I'm gonna keep swinging the bat and see what happens,'" Spurrier said recently on "The Paul Finebaum Show," according to Saturday Down South. "I told him we'd have a No. 15 down in Orlando waiting for him."

Though Spurrier never coached Tebow, they're both legends at the University of Florida.

The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner began his professional baseball career last year, and is hitting .256/.336/.400 with five homers and 24 RBIs in Double-A this season.

"Certainly we'd love to have him," Spurrier said of Tebow.

The former Denver Broncos signal-caller hasn't removed himself from the football world entirely, contributing as an analyst to the SEC Network during college football season. The 30-year-old played in the NFL from 2010-15, but last appeared in a regular-season game in 2012 with the New York Jets.